


Side-Stepping Fate.

by deanandsam



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Gen, sam and dean - Freeform, separated brothers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-13 10:04:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 30,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5703610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deanandsam/pseuds/deanandsam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would the brothers' lives have been like if Mary had listened to Dean's words and not entered baby Sammy's nursery on the 2nd of November 1983?<br/>Au from that night. Dean eighteen, Sam fourteen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In The Beginning

She pulled herself up from the warm enveloping embrace of the bed covers. Sammy was crying; the baby monitor was doing its job scrupulously in letting her know.  
Although she loved her little son with every fiber of her being, she couldn't help wishing that babies were hot-wired to sleep for eight hours solid every night!

Slipping out of bed she made her way in a drowsy haze to the baby's nursery, only to find that John was already there bending over the crib.

 

"Uhhh mmm," she murmured as she turned to go back to her room; John was on it, he could deal with Sammy this time, she'd go back to her warm nest of covers.

She hoped Dean wouldn't wake up, for where Sammy was concerned, he seemed to think he was the baby's mother the way he fussed possessively over him. She smiled as she remembered her elder child's expression when he first saw the new-born. He'd been so awed by his baby brother and he loved nothing better than chattering away to the infant with Sam looking up at him as seriously as if he was taking in every word.  
Kids, she mused affectionately!

 

Passing by the stair-head, she paused when she noticed the flickering light and subdued sounds of battle coming from the downstairs TV. John must have been watching some old war film.

She shrugged and was about to enter her bedroom when some indefinable instinct made her turn back and take a few steps down towards the living room, and it was with cold horror that she saw her husband sprawled fast asleep in his favorite armchair.

Instantly Mary's cloak of sleepiness dissolved and her hunting senses rose to red alert as she rushed back to Sam.

Someone; some stranger was in the nursery with her baby!

 

She was about to burst into the room when suddenly time seemed to slow to a stop, and a flash of memory zapped through her of a strange conversation she'd sustained years before. She recalled the face of a young man, a man who had spoken words to her which back then had made utterly no sense and which she had all but forgotten; but in that split-second of awareness, all the pieces fell into place like a virtual jigsaw puzzle, and fear spiked through her for the well-being of her defenseless child.

She understood now who was standing over Sam, and though every cell in her body, every maternal instinct she possessed, made her want to burst into the room and snatch her baby away from the being who was hovering over him, she forced herself to halt and stay hidden in the shadows.

The young man's words came back to her as clearly as if he was standing right before her, so sincere, so tall and handsome in his worn leather jacket.

 

"Hey, uh, Mary, can I tell you something?  
Even if this sounds really weird. Will you promise me that you'll remember?  
On November 2nd, 1983, don't get out of bed. No matter what you hear, or what you see. Promise me you won't get out of bed."

She'd answered 'okay' then, not understanding what he was saying, merely to placate him for he'd seemed so upset, as if it was really important. But now it was all so terribly real. Today was the 2nd of November 1983.

 

In that precise moment Mary Campbell Winchester held back and didn't enter Sammy's nursery, and in so doing she changed the destiny that had been mapped out for her, her husband and most importantly of all her two sons.

 

 

Fourteen Years Later.

 

I'm off, dad," Dean called, charging through the front door towards the Impala.

John had been witness to his son's near obsessive love for the black beauty since he was a small child and he knew he couldn't have given his boy a more appreciated gift than the old car for his graduation from high school.

"I'll see you back at the shop this afternoon. I gotta finish working on Mr Jones' old banger."

 

John didn't bother answering. Dean was already out of earshot.

His son had the unquenchable energy of youth. The boy could never be still for more than five minutes. It was a wonder to him that Dean had managed to sit through school, yet his boy had surprised him even there. He'd finished with maximum grades and had earned himself a free pass to college.

Dean had always helped out in John's garage too; he had a real talent for fixing cars and was already an expert mechanic.

John knew he'd been very lucky, so many of his clients' kids had fallen prey to drugs and bad company but Dean had never given him any serious trouble, even though the boy had grown up without the gentle hand of a mother.

The kid's only 'bad habit' was his collection of doting girlfriends who often turned up at the shop or the house looking for him!

 

He turned his gaze to the old photograph on the sideboard.

Mary would have been so proud of Dean. He felt the tears welling up in his eyes even after all this time as he studied the bright smiles on the faces of the people in the frame. His beautiful wife Mary, himself, little Dean and baby Sammy. A small reminder of better days when there had been four Winchesters instead of two.

He sent up a silent prayer. 'Wherever you and Sammy are now. I hope you're both together and in peace.' John looked forward to the day they'd both be waiting to welcome him into the afterlife when he too left his mortal body behind.

He drew his eyes away, picked up his car keys and then set them down again. No, this morning he'd walk. He wanted to dwell on the memory of his loved ones a bit longer before dedicating his day to fixing cars.

He closed the door behind him and made his way through the streets of Lawrence to his place of work.

 

TBC


	2. Sioux Falls

"Hey, you the owner?" an impatient voice greeted John as he approached his work-place.  
"Yeah, what can I do for you?"  
"You're late! It says eight o'clock," the man declared loudly pointing at the plaque showing the opening hours. "I've been waiting here over an hour for someone to turn up."

"Sorry 'bout that," John answered evenly, though the man's attitude was rubbing him up the wrong way. "Most of my clients are local and I wasn't expecting anyone to show up before half-eight, but I'm here now so what's the problem?"  
"My damn car stopped dead just down the road and a guy pointed you out as the nearest repair shop. I'm in a hurry. Got an appointment I can't miss."  
"Well then, let's go take a look," John suggested, opening up shop, grabbing his tool bag and escorting the man back to his car.

The guy was unpleasant he decided, but a client was a client, if he paid good money, John couldn't care less if he had two horns growing out of his head!

"Well," John senenced as he lifted his head from under the hood. "I'm afraid this girl's not gonna move from here anytime soon."  
He held up a cracked and worn part he'd pulled from the engine. "And I don't have a spare. It's impossible to keep all the parts on hand for these foreign cars," he said nodding at the big Honda. "It'll take at least three or four days to get a replacement."

The man's face went from ruddy to bright red.

"Oh, fuck! I gotta to get there in time. I've got a huge deal going down," the man lamented as he started to pace up and down. "Listen, maybe you've got a car you can give me? I'll make it worth your while. I'll pay everything upfront and when I come back for the Honda, I'll throw in a coupla hundred more."  
"I'm not exactly a trusting kinda guy," John answered doubtfully. "But if you leave me a hefty deposit I might consider it."

John watched more than satisfied as the man drove off in one of his old spares. He'd just earned a neat little sum of money, whether the client came back for his Honda or not! He really had been desperate to keep his appointment!

 

Four days later the Honda was up and running and John called the number its owner had left him.  
"Hi there, this is Winchester, from the motor shop. Your car's ready to be picked up whenever it's convenient," he said.  
" Listen Winchester," the man answered tiredly. "Sorry, but I've had a bit of an accident. Broke my damn leg. If you drive it back to my place, I'll make it worth your while. You can collect your spare at the same time."  


John considered before answering. What the guy was asking was grossly inconvenient.  
"Well I don't know if I can manage. I'm pretty busy right now. "I'll get back to you on that," John said brusquely cutting the call.

"What is it, dad? " Dean asked, entering the little office just in time to hear his father's grunt of annoyance.  
"Nothing son, just some guy who was supposed to pick up his car but can't. He wants me to run it back to him up to Sioux Falls, but I've got this big repair job for Jim Brogan and .."

"I'll take it, dad," Dean said eagerly. "I've finished the car I was working on and a little trip out of town sounds good. I can make it there and back in a day if I start off early. Sioux Falls is about six hours from here."  
"Well, if you're sure?" John said hesitantly.  
Dean was eighteen, he could look after himself but John still saw him as a kid. Maybe he was a bit over-protective but he'd already lost one son and he NEVER wanted to go through that again.

 

Dean read the worry in his father's eyes.  
"Dad," he said almost gently. "After summer break I'll be off to College. You gonna come and put up a tent on campus to keep an eye on me?"  
John sighed. Dean was right. He had to learn to let go of his son. He knew Dean could look after himself, but... God, being a father was damn difficult!  
"Okay son. I'll call the client and let him know someone will be bringing his car out, but he better hand you some compensation for all the bother!"

 

The following day Dean rolled into Sioux Falls and consigned the car, picking up his dad's replacement.  
His pocket felt a bit heavier with the three hundred dollars the guy had given him for his trouble, but the teen had driven non-stop for six hours and now his stomach was clamouring for food.  
It was only three o'clock, plenty of time to eat before driving back to Lawrence, Dean figured. He called his dad as he walked into the nearest diner, he knew John would be worrying.

"It went like clock-work, Dad and I got a nice tip into the bargain, so win-win! I'm gonna eat and then I'll head back. Yeah, yeah, I'll drive carefully!" Dean rolled his eyes. He loved his dad but he was fucking over-protective,

He closed the call, slipped into the seat and waited for the pretty waitress to arrive.  
Time to try out his charm on the big world of girls outside Lawrence. He grinned appealingly as she came towards him, but his ego took a hit as she didn't seem the least impressed by his toothy smile.  
He shrugged, back home the girls were more appreciative of his awesome sex appeal. He'd better get going though, he mused gulping down the last of his coffee. He still had a long drive ahead of him.

 

"Hi there, Sam." he heard the waitress say as a skinny, mop-haired kid walked into the diner. "The usual?"  
"Yeah, mom's working double shifts and I got a stack of chores to finish so..."  
"Sucks to have to cook your own dinner. Bobby away too?"  
"Uh huh, he had to bring some parts out to buyers, won't be back until tomorrow."

 

Paying only a superficial attention to the little exchange, Dean slipped out of the seat, left a tip and made his way to the door.  
The place was practically empty and the kid turned to glance curiously at him but quickly turned away when Dean met his gaze for a second before exiting the diner.

 

"There you go Sam," the waitress said handing over a bag of food. "Be careful now, when you're walking home."  
"I always am, " the teen replied as he turned to go.

 

Dean walked towards the car. He'd left it parked outside the client's house when he'd seen that the diner was close by.  
He went to put the key in the lock when he heard a rustling behind him, and as he instinctively turned, a blow to the head sent him into a painful oblivion.

 

"Mister, are you okay," a voice murmured hazily from far off, or at least so it seemed to him.  
"M'head, What happened?" he slurred struggling to form the words properly.  
"Two guys tried to mug you," the disembodied voice replied. "Can you open your eyes, I want to take a look at your pupils."

Dean forced himself to comply and finally managed to open heavy eyelids only to find himself looking up at the hovering face of the kid from the diner.

"They seem normal. If you want we can go to the hospital to get you checked out but I think you're just going to have a whopper of a headache," the kid declared, finishing his diagnosis!  
"You think you can pull yourself up? "the boy continued. "You'll feel better sitting. I'll open the door," he said picking up the fallen keys.  


Dean lifted a shaky hand to balance himself against the side of the car while the kid helped him to his feet and settled him sideways on the seat.  
The buzzing calmed down a bit though his head still pulsed like hell.

"Thanks kid. Sam isn't it? I think I overheard the waitress in the diner call you that."  
"Yeah. No need to thank me though," the boy said. "Your attackers must have been a couple of druggies; as soon as I shouted at them they ran off."

"You're kidding! It took courage to what you did, they could have jumped you as well."  
"Nah, I can defend myself. Nobody around here gives me any trouble." the boy said simply without explaining further.

"You staying over in town? I don't think you should drive until your head feels a lot less fuzzy," the kid advised.  
"No, I'm supposed to drive back home today, " Dean murmured, passing a hand over the back of his head, hissing at the pain.

The kid frowned. "That's not a good idea. There's a decent motel not far from here. Might be safer to stop over. That way if there are any consequences, the hospital's nearby."  
" My dad'll be worried if he doesn't see me arriving, " Dean replied.  
"Better you get back a day late all in one piece, than finish up against a tree!" Sam shrugged.  
"Yeah, I suppose."

"Hey listen, I'm on my own at home for now. You could come back with me, and when you're feeling steadier, check in at the motel. That way I can have a better look at your head and pass you a couple of pain-killers."  
The words came spontaneously to Sam's lips and no-one was more surprised than himself as he realized what he'd just said.  
He never asked ANYONE back to the house and now he'd just gone and invited a perfect stranger he knew zilch about.

Dean looked up at the kid.  
The boy had just came to his rescue, he supposed he could trust him. No, he was sure he could! There was something in the earnest hazel eyes that reached out to him.  
He berated himself. He wasn't given to flights of fantasy and yet.....

"Maybe you're right," he heard himself answer. "I'll phone Dad and tell him I'm gonna stay over."  
"OK then," Sam smiled engagingly. "Move over, I'll drive."  


" What age are you, squirt?" Dean asked. "You're not old enough to have a license."  
" Doesn't mean I can't drive," Sam answered. "The important thing is not to get caught by the police!"  


Dean stared at him but shifted along the seat. He didn't trust himself to keep the car in a straight line just yet, so he gave in gracefully.  
This kid was definitely full of surprises!

TBC


	3. The Junk Yard

The kid made quick work of driving the old car the short distance to his home, while now and then glancing over at the older teen in the passenger seat, relieved to see that a touch of colour was coming back into the guy's pale freckled face.

Sam hated hospitals, so he wouldn't wish a visit there even to this stranger he'd picked up rather incautiously by the wayside!  
His mom would strangle him if she found out, he mused nervously. She was forever warning him against having any truck with strangers, but some instinct had made him throw caution to the four winds and come to this guy's defense.  
Well, he'd make sure she never found out. He'd take a better look at the older teen's wounds then send him on his way before she came home.

 

"By the way, I never got your name," Sam said as he turned off the road into a long driveway.  
"Uh, it's Dean," his passenger answered distractedly.

"Dean," Sam repeated, the name rolling easily off his tongue. "Short and sweet, huh!"  
"Hey," Dean shot back, his dizziness almost gone, "You're one to talk! Sam has three letters, one less, dude!"  
"Actually it's Samuel, so ..." but Dean had already turned his eyes away to stare curiously at the high stacks of old rusting cars balanced precariously one on top of the other like some post- apocalyptic towers of Babel.

"You live here, in this junk yard?" Dean asked taking in the run-down look of the place. His dad was a stickler for order, he'd have been appalled by the unorganized chaos that lay before his eyes.  
"Yeah, you never been in one before?" Sam asked, parking the car in front of a green door that needed an urgent coat of paint.  
"To be honest, no. Dad usually just phones and gets stuff delivered, but I'd never have thought they were as messy as this!"  
"Well then, how would you know? Junk yards are probably all like Uncle Bobby's," Sam said shrugging.

He exited the car and came round to the passenger door, opening it and holding out his hand to help Dean out, but Dean swatted it away.  
" I'm feeling better, dude. I already lost some of my awesomeness by letting a little kid like you drive me, but I'm not gonna lose more points by letting you haul me around as if I was an old lady."  
"Suit yourself," Sam replied, twisting his features into a scowl which Dean could only classify as a bitch-face.

He had to rethink his refusal though, 'cos when he tried to get out, his legs wobbled all over the place and he almost went down, almost, because the annoying little shit threw an arm round his waist and held on.  
"So old lady it is!" the smart- mouthed kid grinned as he helped Dean to the door. "Think you can hang on till I open up, ma'am?"  
Dean just nodded, desperately fighting the sensation of nausea that came over him.

Sam pushed open the door and led Dean through a dark a corridor into an old-fashioned sitting room where he planked him down on a worn couch.  
"Just hang in there, Dean. I'll go get my stuff and have a better look at your head."  
Dean lay back, pillowed his head on the back-rest and closed his eyes. The nausea seemed to pass as long as he sat still, so that's just what he'd do.

He heard the rustle as Sam came back into the room.  
"I'm just gonna take a better look," the boy informed him, circling the couch.

Dean felt hands gently touching in and around the lump which had sprouted on the back of his head.  
"Ow," he yelped as Sam's fingers probed a particularly tender spot.  
"Sorry," the boy apologized "But I have to be sure it 's only a surface wound, which it is."

"How come you know all this stuff anyway? Aren't little kids like you supposed to be off playing soccer or something, not patching up head wounds."  
"I'm not a little kid," Sam protested. "I'm fourteen. It's just... my mom thinks I should know basic first aid," then quickly changing the subject, he continued. "I do play soccer, if you must know. I'm pretty good too!"  
"No false modesty for you, eh Sammy!" Dean parried.

He was enjoying his conversation with this kid. For some reason it felt comfortable, as if he'd known him for ever and not just for the past hour or so.  
"It's Sam," was the pissed reply. "Sammy was a chubby twelve-year-old," he precised.

"Right," Dean laughed, wishing he hadn't, as his head was in NO laughing mood and wanted him to keep still.  
He tried to conjure up an image of Sam as a pudgy child, but couldn't. The kid wasn't much shorter than himself though he was seriously skinny, any chubbiness must have been sacrificed on the altar of growing bones and sinews!

He'd been so caught up in his mental meanderings that he hadn't noticed Sam standing in front of him holding out two pills.  
"Here these should help with the pain and dizziness. It's definitely just a superficial blow," he sentenced. "You shouldn't have any consequences but if you really want I can take you to get checked out."  
"Na, I'll be fine," Dean said as he took the pills followed by the glass of water to wash them down.

"Listen," Sam said. "Why don't you close your eyes for an hour or two. When you wake up, we'll see how you feel. I'll sit right here at the desk and keep an eye on you. I've got stuff to study anyway."

Dean was fine with that, his eyes were clamouring to be closed, so he pulled his feet up over the end of the couch and slipped down its length.  
He went out like a light and didn't even budge when the younger boy threw an old blanket over him.

 

Giving his guest one last glance, Sam booted up the computer. He had information to look up for his mom.  
Mary had a job to hold down as well as hunting, and for the past few years Sam had been doing most of the research. She had left him to it when she'd seen how quickly her young son had become proficient.  
She and Uncle Bobby took care of most of the actual hunts, though Sam had been trained since he was a kid to become part of the team.

He remembered how scared he'd been when his Mom had begun to explain that alongside humans, monsters of every kind existed too, and how sorry she was that she had to let Sam in on the secret. But, she'd continued, it was better he knew so he could defend himself if needed.

 

Wistfully he glanced over at Dean sleeping open-mouthed on the couch and sighed as he thought how lucky the older boy was in his innocence, while he, Sam, bore the burden of knowing what really went on in the world.

Delving back into his research, he lost the notion of time until a voice intruded on his thoughts.  
"Sammy, any chance of some coffee for a wounded man?"  
Sam turned towards it. "It's Sam, " he corrected automatically.

If Dean had been a monster, Sam would have been mince-meat by now, but as his eyes met those of the older boy, he somehow knew Dean would be the last person on Earth to ever hurt him and with lightheartedness, he quickly saved his research and walked over to the couch.

 

"You're feeling better then?" he asked as Dean pulled himself up into a sitting position and passed a wary hand over the back of his head.  
"Ouch, it still hurts like a bitch, but, yeah, I'm feeling a lot better, thanks," he said, smiling up at the boy.  
"What about that coffee or am I gonna have to brew it myself? You don't have to hover, Sammy," he said as Sam held out a hand. "I'll be fine now!"  
"It's Sam," the kid repeated again, dropping his hand.  
"Never saw anyone who looked more like a Sammy, " Dean grinned, amused by his insistence.

The more time he spent in this strange kid's company, the more he felt at ease.

 

He stood up gingerly, but the nausea and dizziness seemed to have disappeared and he made his way effortlessly enough to the kitchen.  
"Hey, man, It's fine. I'll make the coffee for you," Sam declared, following behind.  
"Na, I gotta start getting around and I gotta phone my dad. He's pretty sensitive where I'm concerned. If he thinks there's something going on with me he'll be rolling up to cart me off."

"You've not mentioned your mom," Sam observed hesitantly, not sure if he was treading on permitted ground.  
"No, she died when I was four, " Dean supplied leaning on the sink. "I can barely remember her, just that she was beautiful and had long blond hair."  
"Um...sorry, I didn't mean to..." Sam said awkwardly.

"It's okay. You couldn't have known. What about you? You got the standard two parents?"  
"My dad's dead. I've never known him," Sam answered. "He died in a car crash when I was a baby. I don't remember anything about him."  
"Sorry kid," Dean said.  
"Don't be, you couldn't have known," Sam replied, echoing Dean's same words.  
Somehow the mutual loss of a parent drew them even closer.

 

Dean got on with brewing the coffee, with Sam standing next to him looking on. He'd never had any friends home, It felt good to see someone other than his mom and uncle Bobby pottering around the kitchen.

TBC


	4. Mary Winchester

Mary drew into the driveway, she'd been scheduled to do the next shift at the local hospital but one of her colleagues had phoned in and asked for a favour-if she could swap shifts and take Mary's second shift today instead of coming in tomorrow.

Mary had been more than happy to say yes.  
She usually only worked double shifts when Bobby was at home for she didn't care to leave Sam on his own, but the older man had been called suddenly away with an urgent delivery of spare parts for one of his best customers, and she'd been fretting about Sam coming home to an empty house.

He was fourteen now, but she'd suspected for years that something was waiting in the shadows for her child, and was terrified that Sam would find himself on his own if anything happened.  
Her son was a smart kid and could look out for himself, she mused proudly, but he was no match for the evil that permeated the supernatural world.  
Coming into sight of the house, her heart missed a beat when she saw an unknown car parked in front of the main door.

 

What was going on, she wondered as she pulled her gun from the glove compartment and got out.  
She spun on her heels to survey the junk yard. Everything seemed normal, and neither her hunting instincts nor her maternal ones were giving any indication that something evil was in the vicinity. Nevertheless she kept the gun in her hand as she approached the building.

She'd warned Sam about bringing people home and he understood. Bobby's house was stuffed with enough supernatural paraphernalia to make the majority of people run off in fright, but it seemed that's exactly what had happened.  
Sam had disobeyed the standing order and brought someone to the house. She appreciated how hard it was for him to keep a low profile at school but until now he'd never broken the 'no friends at home' rule.

Inspecting the vehicle, she saw it bore a Kansas licence plate. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight, her emotions reminding her of what she'd left back there so long ago.  
Yet it was odd that a car from that state should be sitting outside her door.  
She had a running acquaintance with all the families who frequented the nearby high school and none of them had a car like this. Maybe her instincts weren't working this time.  
Perhaps Sam WAS in danger! She laid a hand on the hood to steady herself, fearing what she might find inside!

 

 

Sam's head came up in apprehension when he heard the screech of tyres in the drive-way, and he raced over to the window only to see his mom exit her car.

"Something wrong kid?" he heard Dean say at his back. The older teen was leaning against the sink, sipping his coffee.  
"Uh...! My mom's just come home," he replied nervously, glancing at the older boy, then back outside.  
"Well, I know I'm not Paul Newman," Dean grinned. "But I'm cute, or so all the girls tell me. You worried I'm not gonna make a good impression on her or something?"

"No, it's not that," Sam replied wryly. "It's just….., she doesn't like me bringing people home and well, you know," he nodded towards Dean, "You're a stranger to boot."  
"Well you can spill her all that 'Good Samaritan' stuff. It's supposed to be positive, right! Helping out a stranger?"

"I don't know if mom'll go for that, but it's too late to bundle you out the back door now," Sam declared anxiously as he heard the key turn in the lock.

 

Dean couldn't understand why Sam was so worried.  
Okay, he was a stranger and maybe the kid shouldn't have brought him home. But even though he reckoned Sam was exaggerating, something prompted him to move up and stand at the boy's side.  
If the mom was gonna touch his floppy-haired saviour, she'd have to deal with Dean Winchester first.

 

"Sam," a woman's voice called out warily from the hallway. "You okay, honey?"  
"Yeah mom, I'm fine. I've got a friend home," he added quickly, tuning his head to find Dean standing at his side.  
"Don't worry, squirt,” the older boy whispered conspiratorially. “I've got your back. We'll tell her I'm the brother of one of your friends come to pick up a copy of his homework."

Sam felt a grin coming to his face despite his nervousness. "She'll never believe it, doofus! Mom knows everybody around here and she sure won't fall for a lame excuse like THAT!"  
"Well forgive me if I was trying to cover that skinny ass of yours," Dean ginned back. 

And that's how Mary found them as she opened the door to the sitting room, Dean standing protectively at Sam's side and the two of then smiling at each other as if they'd never been apart.  
She could feel the blood draining from her face and her legs wobbling as she took in the sight. All she'd done to keep half of her family safe was crumbling to rubble before her eyes, but maybe she could still salvage something.

"Mom, mom! Are you okay? " Sam exclaimed rushing over to put a hand under her arm as she seemed to totter.  
"I'm fine, Sam," she whispered. "I just need to sit down. I think I'm coming down with influenza or something. It seems to be going round the hospital staff. I'll just sit here minute. Could you get me a glass of water, please?"  
"Sure mom," Sam said helping her onto the couch then hurrying into the kitchen.

 

Mary tuned her gaze on the tall young man standing only yards away from her and she drank in the sight. She knew what he looked like, of course. She'd kept an eye on his progress, she'd wept bitter tears over his year-book photos on the 'net.  
She was aching to run to him, to pull him into her arms and never let him go, but she didn't have that luxury. She still had a chance to protect her first-born and let him live a normal safe life.

But as she stared in the flesh at the tall handsome man her child had become, the awful revelation came to her, and she put a hand over her mouth to stop herself from moaning when it dawned just WHO the young man had been that had come to her all those years ago, and on whose advice she had put all this into motion.  
It had been her own son, it had been Dean who had warned her to stay out of Sam's nursery on the second of November 1983.

Mary was a strong woman, she was a hunter. But at this moment she just wanted to burst into tears like the hysterical women she'd always poked fun at on those weepy soap operas which infested the TV.

 

Sam came rushing out of the kitchen with the glass of water which she took thankfully, sipping at it slowly to give herself time to recover some self-control, while all the time throwing quick glances at her older son.

"Uh," Dean said, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen over the room. "I'm real sorry if my being here has caused you or Sammy any trouble. He came to my rescue when somebody mugged me."

Mary's head came up at that. "Are you hurt? " she asked concerned, all her maternal instincts flowing back stronger than before, for her newly found child.  
"Na, Sammy here did a great job on me. He's a resourceful little kid," Dean replied, ruffling the boy's hair and receiving a rousing bitch-face, while Mary looked on amazed as Sam, who allowed no-one to call him 'Sammy' not even her, didn't object in the least but seemed to bask in the older boy's praise.

She sighed. What the hell was she going to do now?  
TBC


	5. That Fateful Night

Mary came from a long line of hunters; men and women who'd known and fought the supernatural for centuries, but above everything she was a mother, and the sight of her two beautiful children together again after fourteen years, made her heart ache with both joy and despair.

 

She'd made a decision though, that fateful night in November and now she had to live with it.

Her mind had soon put the pieces together, the yellow eyed demon, John's death, her acceptance of the deal with the hell-spawn to bring him back to life.  
She still shivered at the tactile memory of her father's lips pressing down on her own when the demon kissed her to seal the deal, how she had fought to keep down her vomit at the unnatural joining. Her father's soul had been long gone but nevertheless...!  
She'd been aware that what she was doing would come with a high price, but she'd been so desperate to save John, to save her lover. She'd naïvely believed the payback would fall on her own shoulders when the ten years were up, instead it was her innocent baby who was to bear the burden of her selfishness.

She'd put her past life, including the deal, out of her mind during those wonderful years with John, setting up home together, the wonder of her pregnancy and the arrival of little Dean, whom she had named lovingly after her poor mother.  
He'd been such a beautiful little boy, caring, tender and giving. She was the luckiest woman on Earth, and then when Sammy arrived her cup of joy had run over.

Yeah, she sighed. Wasn't it always like that? Life was a bitch! The bigger the rush, the harder the fall.  
And on that cold November night, Mary fell.

 

She'd gone into Sam's room immediately after the dark figure had disappeared, feeling like the most depraved of mothers for not having rushed in to defend her baby, but the words of the unknown stranger years before had flashed into her mind, and she'd halted outside the door.  
Once the being had gone, she'd dashed frantically over to the crib, terrified that he'd hurt Sammy, but the baby seemed fine except for two spots of what looked like blood on the soft pillow around Sam's head.   
She'd lifted him up and wept quietly into his soft hair, filling her lungs with his scent and nursing him until his eyelids fluttered and sleep claimed him .  
Then she'd lain him down gently on the changing table and quickly stripped off the pillowcase. She could see no wound on the baby, so the red dots must have been left by the demon.  
Mary was almost sure they were blood and she quickly went for the bottle of holy water, the only remnant she kept in the house of her past hunting life, and let a few drops fall on the stains. They bubbled up with a hissing noise, and combined with a slight smell of sulphur, they left no margin for doubt!

The demon had bled onto Sam, or into him. The yellow-eyed bastard hadn't been coming for her, but for her son.  
Taking Sammy in her arms, she'd hurried into Dean's room. Thankfully he was sleeping soundly, his golden hair all mussed up on the pillow.  
It was only Sam who had been the target then, she surmised. Dean had been spared the demon's visit.

She'd crawled into her bed and curled up around the baby. What a fool she'd been to think that just because she'd pushed away her memories of the past, they weren't going to come back and bite her in the ass.  
She, Mary Winchester had made a deal, the most selfish of deals!   
To have John back alive, she'd condemned her son to an unknown destiny and put the rest of her loved ones in danger.  
She could do nothing to change what had happened to Sam, but that didn't mean she couldn't protect the other two members of her family.

When John finally came to bed, he found his wife clutching the baby. "The little guy been keeping you awake?" he whispered softly as he got into bed, leaning over the child to give her a kiss.  
"I must have dozed off in front of the TV, " he added sheepishly. "Didn't hear him crying at all."  
"It's okay, " she'd answered. "I've got it."

 

A month later, Mary put her plan into operation.  
"Honey, I'm taking Sammy with me to get some supplies. We're low on diapers again."  
"Yeah, " John said playfully, coming over to tickle the baby under the chin. "The kid sure knows how to fill them up! He's like a production line! The quicker we get him potty trained the better. Just think of all the money we'll save!"

She flashed him a watery smile and threw one last glance at Dean. It was all she could manage, the enormity of what she was about to do weighing her down like concrete, but it would protect her husband and elder son.  
She walked out of the door and into her small car, neither John nor Dean would ever see her and Sammy again.

 

Bobby's House

But fate has a way of stabbing you in the back, she cursed as she studied the young man standing beside Sam.  
She breathed in heavily, she couldn't allow the sacrifice she'd made to keep Dean and John safe to be nullified by a chance encounter between the two brothers. She still hadn't worked out why the yellow-eyed Demon had infected Sam with his blood.   
The danger to Dean and John was still there.

She saw the boys watching her curiously, wondering why she was so silent.  
"Mom?" Sam asked hesitantly. "You sure you're okay?"  
"Don't fuss, Sammy. I'll be fine as soon as the pills take effect."

"So," she said, turning to Dean. "I'm happy Sam managed to give you a hand. He's a good kid. I thought I knew all the young guys from around here though. You're not local, are you?"  
"No, ma'am," Dean replied. "I had some business in town to take care of for my dad, I was just getting into the car to go home when some guy must've thought I was carrying money and decided to go for it. Good job Sammy was passing by and gave me a hand."  
Mary wanted nothing more than to hug her son and claim him for her own but she couldn't, so she settled for second best.

"Let me see," she said getting up and going over to Dean. "I'm a nurse. I'm sure Sam has done a good job, but I'd better take a look. Wouldn't want to sent you back to your dad anything less than healthy."  
She knew it would be torture to touch him, she hadn't been able to hold him in her arms for so many years, but she was his mother and she couldn't resist now that he was standing right there in front of her.

She gently pushed his hair to the side and studied the lumpy wound, brushing her fingers over it and remembering the four-year old with the golden hair. It was darker now but he was still her baby.  
"It must hurt, but I think you'll live," she sentenced, regretfully pulling her hand away, she'd treasure this small moment.

"Well, I 'd better be on my way then, now that I've been officially checked over by a nurse. I was gonna stay overnight in a motel but I'm feeling a lot better. The dizziness has disappeared completely. I'll be okay to drive back home."   
Even as he said the words, somehow Dean felt reluctant to leave.

"What! No!" Sam objected. "I thought we might hang out until later, maybe we could eat here together. I'm a good cook. I was gonna make some curry tonight. Uncle Bobby taught me real well."  
Dean looked over at the kid, the expression in the boy's eyes making him want to say yes, which he was about to do when Mary broke in.

"Sam, " she scolded. " Dean has to get home. His dad's expecting him."  
"He can call him and let him know he'll be back tomorrow," Sam insisted, not understanding exactly why he didn't want Dean to leave.

Dean however began to feel uncomfortable with the tension building up in the room. The kid wanted him to stay but his mom didn't.  
"You're mom's right, Sammy, " he agreed eventually. "It's better I hit the road. My dad's going to be worried, and I'd rather let him see I'm okay before telling him I was mugged."  
Sam's face fell. "Mom," he whined looking over at his mother.

"It's Dean's decision, honey, but I think he'd be better off getting back home as soon as possible."   
Sam sighed. He knew he was beaten. "I'll walk you to the car," he said bumping against Dean's shoulder.

Out in the yard, Dean pulled the keys from his pocket, fiddling with them.  
"Thanks Sammy, for what you did for me today."  
Sam nodded, but he wasn't willing to let things end here.  
"Listen, Dean. When you get home, give me a ring. Just to let me know...um...what your dad says."

Sam knew it was a lame excuse but he just didn't want to lose track of Dean. Some instinct told him to keep a link open. Sam's hunches had served him well before and he trusted them.  
"I will, " Dean answered, relieved that Sam had asked.  
It wasn't on him to offer, since Sam's mother hadn't seemed to approve of him, or at least that's the impression he'd received, but he'd grown to like the kid in the few hours he'd known him and he'd be happy to keep in touch.  
Sam smiled in response, a toothy grin that went straight to Dean's heart. 

What the hell, the older teen wondered, scrambling to understand why he should feel any empathy towards this unknown boy. But he could come up with no logical answer and as he set off down the drive-way, he began to wonder just who this mother and child were.  
Internet was a great way to get details on people. It was a bit stalkerish but Dean knew it wasn't going to stop him searching for information.  
TBC


	6. Curiosity Sets In.

"Dad? I had a little bit of a set-back... Na, nothing to worry about! I'm on the way home, just gonna get back a few hours later than planned."  
Dean closed the call, and before long he was turning onto the Interstate heading towards Kansas, a niggling feeling persisting that his chance meeting with the kid and his mother was something he shouldn't forget.

It was well after 2 a.m. when he finally pulled up outside his home in Lawrence.  
A suffused a yellow light shone through the curtains of the living room. It made Dean smile as he thought of how his dad still regarded him as a kid.  
Most of his friends' parents had gotten over the habit of waiting up for their children, yet there was something comforting in the thought that his dad still looked out for him.

Contrary to a lot of his class-mates, he and his father had always gotten on extremely well. They'd always been open with each other and Dean hadn't gone through the 'rebellion against parental authority' phase that seemed to affect most teens.  
Simply put, he loved his dad and his dad loved him.

He pulled out his phone and sent a SMS to Sam. He'd promised to let him know when he arrived safely home.  
The kid had asked him to call but he'd be asleep at this hour of the night. He'd read the message tomorrow when he woke up.

Dean pocketed his phone, exited the car and made his way up the path, passing an exploring hand over the back of his head. It still pulsed painfully but he'd been lucky, so a headache wasn't such a bad pay-off.  
He wasn't going to tell dad about that though, he'd never hear the end of it!

 

John padded out of the living room when Dean pushed open the front door.  
"About time!" his father exclaimed. "I was beginning to get worried."  
Dean threw him an ironic glance. "Come on dad, I'm fine! I'm a big boy now. I can look after myself. I was only delivering a car, not taking on a horde of terrorists!"

John ran a hand through his hair.  
"You're right, son," he sighed, " but you're not a parent. Once you've got a couple of kids, we'll talk again."  
"Didn't think you were so anxious to become a granddad," Dean snorted as he strolled towards the kitchen. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but I've got a lot of living to do before I settle down, Dad, if I ever do, " he added, his gaze falling on the photos of Mary, John, himself and little Sammy that were laid out almost reverently on top of the sideboard.

Dean had been four and a half, and he'd only had six months with his little brother before he'd lost him, but the love and fascination he'd felt for the baby were still fresh in his mind, probably because he'd done his best to keep Sammy's image alive in his memory, never wanting to forget about his brother and his mom.

"I'm gonna have a late-night snack, then crash. Now that I'm back safe and sound, you can go off to bed, 'daddy'," he teased.  
"You laughing at me, boy? You're not too big for me to turn you over my lap and spank you!"  
Dean almost spat out the milk he was drinking at his dad's words.

"Seeing as you never even did that when I was I kid, I can't really take your threat very seriously," he laughed, wiping away the excess milk from his lips.  
John just shook his head and made for the stairs. He hadn't been able to go to bed until his son had arrived home, but he'd the shop to open tomorrow and he needed his rest.

 

Dean finished up in the kitchen and passing by the dresser, he snagged the photo he'd been looking at earlier. When he was younger, he used to take it to bed and put it under his pillow. Somehow it had made him feel that mom and Sammy were still there with him.  
He flopped down on his bed, his eyes going to the corner where the merry-go-round that used to hang over Sammy's cot, was pinned. He remembered how he'd cried bitter tears that terrible day when Dad had told him mommy and Sammy had gone to heaven; that they would watch over him from above.

 

He switched on the bedside light and studied the photo.  
His mom had been so beautiful, so young and happy and the photographer had caught baby Sammy just as he'd been in the process of giving a cute toothless smile. Dean rubbed a finger over the baby's face. He wondered what Sam would have been like if he hadn't died in the accident with Mom.  
He'd be fourteen now and as Dean closed his eyes in sleep, he imagined that Sammy might look something like the kid he'd met in Sioux Falls.

 

Sioux Falls

Mary watched from behind the curtain as Sam escorted the older boy to the car, following it until it disappeared at the end of the drive-way.  
God, she'd had such a shock when she'd walked in and seen Dean.  
She didn't know how she'd kept it together, but she'd sacrificed so much to try to keep him and John safe, and until she found out exactly why that demon had bled into Sam's mouth, then she couldn't afford to let her emotions control her.

She noted how the boys had been drawn to each other, as if they'd felt the tug of a magnetic attraction.  
They'd only been in each other's company a few hours, she sighed, and yet Dean had already taken up a protective stance at Sam's side when he'd seen her enter, not to speak of the fact that Sam had allowed Dean to call him by the hated 'Sammy' nickname!  


She'd have to speed up the research on the demon, find out what his end game was. The fact that her sons had met was a dangerous coincidence and she'd have to monitor the situation.  
Bobby had mentioned he'd come up with a lead, but until he got back from his delivery, that would have to wait.

 

"Mom," Sam said in an irritated voice, re-entering the room. "Why couldn't Dean have stayed to dinner? Even a blind man could've seen that you wanted rid of him."  
Had she been so obvious, Mary wondered.

"That's not true, Sam," she prevaricated. " He said his dad was waiting for him, and I know what it's like when a parent worries about their child."  
"I wouldn't call Dean a child, mom," Sam argued. "He told me he's eighteen. When I'm that age I'd like to be treated like an adult, not a kid!"  
"If you act like an adult, you'll get treated like one, Sam. Whatever age you are."  
"Just what's that supposed to mean, mom? It doesn't even make sense!" he whined.

"Come on, Sammy. I'm starving," she cajoled, trying to change the subject. "What do you say we whip up some of that curry, just you and me?"  
"It's Sam, mom! How often do I have to remind you!" the teen bitched back. He felt unusually annoyed with his mother for not letting Dean stay.

So, Mary smiled wryly to herself. It seemed Dean was the only one who got to call her boy Sammy!

 

After dinner Sam blurted out an excuse about having stuff to do for his summer research and made his way up to his room.  
He booted up the personal computer Bobby and his mom had bought him last Christmas and after a quick search he found Dean Winchester's year book from Lawrence High.  
Browsing though the information, he saw the teen had graduated with great grades.  
Sam was impressed. Dean had seemed a groovy kind of guy, the kind that wouldn't be bothered much with studying. Sam himself loved school. His grades were good too. That was something they had in common then, he smiled.

Dean hadn't mentioned his dad's first name but he'd said his father was a mechanic, and soon Sam had brought up a list of all the car repair businesses in Lawrence.  
Sure enough there it was. "J. Winchester" and the address. He wondered what the 'J' stood for, probably James or John, he mused.  
He searched some more but that was all he seemed to be able to find on the Winchesters.

His mom had died when he was four, Dean had said, but he hadn't elaborated on how it happened. Sam was a curious kid, and now that he'd met Dean, he wanted to find out as much as possible about him.  
Maybe something bad had happened to her to cause her to die at such a young age.

It was a long shot, but there could be some more info on the Winchesters in the back issues of the newspapers of that year. He mentally counted down. Dean had been four so that would make his mom's death around 1983, the same year that he himself had been born.

He shelved the search for now and concentrated on the project he'd been assigned for the summer break. Tomorrow he'd take a trip to the library.  
tbc


	7. The Truth Begins To Leak Out

It was the middle of the night when Bobby's truck wheeled into the yard, the roar of the engine penetrating Sam's subconscious as he tossed and turned restlessly in bed. Sleep had never come easy to him, the darkness had always brought problems of its own.

He never actually dreamed of anything in particular, no nightmares as such, but the sensation of something evil lying in wait for him at the edge of his vision, biding its time in the shadows before invading his dreams to drag him away to some terrifying mindscape, was becoming ever more overwhelming, and many a time he woke up trembling and sweating without understanding why.  
It wasn't due to his awareness of monsters, though that would've been enough to scare the pants off anyone. No, it was more than that!

 

On his eleventh birthday, his mom, along with the more conventional gifts of a shirt, jeans and books, had given him one he'd rather have done without.  
She'd sat him down solemnly at Uncle Bobby's kitchen table and explained to the awed child about the parallel world of monsters that existed alongside humankind.  
Sam remembered staring at her as if she was narrating some Halloween fairy-tale, but he'd soon come to understand it was all horribly real.  
She told him about her family, the Campbells, how they'd hunted these beings for generations.

In the three years since then his life had changed completely, his mom had begun training him in everything she knew, how to handle a gun, self-defence, lore, spells and anything else a hunter might need to have a chance at surviving in the life.

More than once, he'd angrily turned on Mary, asking why they couldn't just ignore the monsters like everyone else did. Why did he have to be the freak? His school-mates knew nothing, yet they were perfectly happy. Why couldn't she have kept him in the dark too?

His mom had pulled him to her and sadly explained that his friends weren't born into a family who hunted these things, and there was always the danger that some monster might bear a grudge, and end up hurting Sam.  
She wanted her boy to be able to defend himself, and knowledge about these monsters was the best way to do that.  
Of course Mary hadn't told him everything. She hadn't deemed him ready to know about what had happened after the demon's visit in 1983!

 

With time Sam had proved to be a quick learner, and once he'd been initiated into the secret, Uncle Bobby had revealed he too was a hunter.

Until then all the older man's supernatural paraphernalia, books and various objects had been locked away in his private study, but afterwards the door was left open and stuff began to gradually invade the rest of the house.  
Sam had spent hours reading his way through Uncle Bobby's tomes, alternating between terror and awe, depending on the text. He soon began to pick up Latin thanks to Bobby's lessons and now he was reasonably fluent in it.

Bobby had insisted he learn the standard exorcisms by heart, something that Sam had done, though he fervently hoped he'd never have to meet a demon face on. The older man had taught Sam to drive and how to unlock and hot wire a car too.  
"Never know when you might need a quick get-away," he'd say.  
"But that's stealing," Sam had protested.  
"When you've got a monster on your ass, stealing doesn't seem such a crime, kid," Bobby had replied crustily.  
"Well, if you put it like that," Sam had nodded, though not totally convinced.

 

He slept fitfully the rest of the night, and as soon as dawn began to illuminate the sky, went down to the kitchen and fixed himself some breakfast. He could hear his mom moving about upstairs and he brewed coffee for her.  
She should have been home today but she'd traded shifts and so was on duty this morning at the hospital.

"Morning, Sammy," Mary smiled, entering the kitchen. " Mm, that coffee smells good. Thanks honey."  
"It's Sam, mom," he corrected her." When are you gonna realize I'm not a kid any more!"  
"Whatever, " Mary replied. " Oh gosh, I'm gonna be late,” she said glancing at her watch. "Got anything planned for today, Sam?"  
"Nothing special. I thought I'd go to the library. I've got some research to do for my summer project," he answered smoothly.  
"Your Uncle Bobby came back last night. He's still sleeping. Let him know where you'll be, okay?"  
"Don't worry, mom. I can look after myself!" Sam assured her.  
"Yeah, but moms always worry! Bye sweetie," she said as she gave him a peck on the cheek and ran out the door.

Sam slipped out before Bobby awoke.  
His mind was still mulling over his chance meeting with Dean yesterday. How he'd felt an indefinable connection to the older boy.  
He recalled that Dean had used the name Sammy too, but somehow it had seemed more natural coming from him than from his mom.

 

"Hi, Sam," the librarian greeted him when he approached the desk.  
"Hi, Elsie, I wondered if you had any back issues of Kansas newspapers on tape.”  
"Not too sure. We usually just keep the local papers and the bigger national ones, but there might be something. I'll go see. Anything particular you're looking for?"  
"Yeah, papers from 1983. I need some info for my project."  
"Well, we can always request tapes from a Kansas library if it's really urgent. Have a seat, I'll bring them over to you."

Elsie arrived with a boxful of tapes and planked them down beside Sam.  
"There's a good selection of newspapers from that year. You might just be lucky. Going through that lot should keep you occupied for the entire day."  
"Thanks Elsie," Sam smiled.  
Elsie grinned back. She had a soft spot for the kid. He was always polite and educated, with a pair of soulful hazel eyes that touched her heart.  
Too bad they're not all like that, she thought, her mind going to some of the rowdier kids who infested the library.

 

Sam worked his way methodically through the tapes but he didn't find much that made reference to Kansas, or to the city of Lawrence. He was just beginning to think he was on a wild goose chase and all he was going to get here were bloodshot eyes from focusing too long on the grainy screen, when the name Winchester jumped out at him.  
He quickly rewound to the beginning of the article and began reading.

[ "In a terrible accident early yesterday morning, a young mother and her seven month old baby lost their lives when their car ended up in the river. No bodies have been found so far. Due to the snow and bad weather, the river is swollen and fast flowing, and could have swept the bodies miles away. The police are still searching but they don't hold out much hope of finding the mother or her child.  
We tried to talk to the widower, Mr. John Winchester but as you can imagine, he was racked by the grief of losing his young wife Mary and baby Samuel..."]

The article continued but Sam leaned back in his chair stunned.  
He was a smart kid and it didn't take long for everything to fall into place.  
John Winchester had a wife called Mary and Dean had once had a younger brother called Sam. It could be a coincidence, but if you added in the fact that his mom had told him his own dad had died when he was a baby, it became more than a simple coincidence.

Mom had said when his dad Jeffrey Singer passed away in a crash, she'd come to stay with Bobby his older brother. It was only supposed to be for a short time, but Bobby had insisted they stay on, and so Mary had.  
If things were as Sam now suspected, it meant the story his mom had told him was a lie, and Uncle Bobby was privy to all of it too. He felt a rush of emotions building up inside him, but he quashed them down.  
First of all he had to find certain proof!

 

He glanced at his watch. It was nearly one o'clock.  
Sam called home.  
"Uncle Bobby. I'm finished here. You rustling up lunch by any chance? Yeah!... Okay... Keep some warm for me. I'll be right there."

He wasn't one hundred percent sure his theory was correct, but if he played his cards right, Uncle Bobby might let something slip.  
The older man had arrived in the middle of the night and mom had gone to work before he'd gotten up, so he might not know anything about Dean having been there yesterday.  
He quickly gathered up his stuff and ran all the way home.

"Uncle Bobby," he gasped panting, as he jogged into the kitchen. "I gotta talk to you."  
"You run the whole way back, son? I know my stew's the best around but you could've taken your time," Bobby said amused. The kid must really have an appetite today.

Sam took a deep breath and burst out.  
"I know the truth, Bobby. I know who I really am, and it's not Sam Singer."

 

Sam had gone for the shock effect. Maybe he was wrong, but the twitch of surprise he saw in the older man's eyes before he managed to hide it, told him he'd hit home!  
"What are you talking about, kid?" Bobby blustered. "You're Sam Singer, why would you think otherwise?"  
"No, I think my name is Sam Winchester."

TBC


	8. Dean Has His Suspicions Too

Wearily Dean opened his eyes, closing them again quickly to protect his retinas from the yellow glare of the morning sun as it targeted him through the chink in the curtains.  
Pulling himself up, he passed both hands over his face and through his pillow-tousled hair. 

He'd slept badly, tossing and turning without knowing why, his fragmented dreams interspersed with continuous flashes of his few childhood memories of his mom.  
He usually had no trouble sleeping, passing out like a light as soon as his head hit the pillow, practically unconscious until the alarm rang annoyingly in the morning, so this disturbed night was atypical for him.

He shrugged it off. Last night he'd been studying the photo of his mom before falling asleep, it must have affected him more than he'd expected. She was so young and beautiful in that old photo, her curly blond hair tumbling around her shoulders like a halo.  
A slight frown appeared on his young face.

Now that he came to think on it, Sam Singer's mother had shown a certain resemblance to his own mom. Sure, her hair had been shorter and straighter, styled into a shoulder length bob, but her features had definitely been similar.  
Of course she was older and there had been a few lines on her face yet...

Dean wondered why he hadn't noticed yesterday, perhaps his dreams last night had made him pick up on the likeness, or maybe he'd just been woozy from the blow on the head and his meeting with young Sam, to pay her much attention.  
The back of his head still felt a little tender to the touch but nothing compared to before, he mused relieved, as he padded bare-footed out of his room and down the corridor to the bathroom, his mind still dwelling on the dreams.

As the hot water poured over his body, waking and relaxing him at the same time, he found himself unable to rid his mind of the resemblance between his own mom and Sam's, now that the idea had wormed itself into his head.  
He couldn't stop the smile that came to him, imagining how great it would have been if Mary Singer had been his mom and Sammy his little brother.

"God, just how dumb am I? " Dean almost yelled at the water raining down around him. "One coincidence is just that, a coincidence, but a series of them make a fact," he whispered excitedly to himself.  
"MARY Singer-MARY Winchester, SAM Singer- SAM Winchester. My Sammy would have been fourteen and Sam Singer is fourteen. Sam never knew his dad who died in an accident. I lost mom and my Sammy in an accident and their bodies were never found.  
It could all be a coincidence, I know," he continued feverishly, still talking to himself as the water flowed over him like some liquid Baptism that had given him Revelation.

 

"Dean! How long are you gonna be in there, son? I gotta get to work," his father's powerful voice called out, piercing through the hissing of the shower and interrupting Dean's reasoning.  
The younger Winchester turned off the water and rushed out the door, contemplating the tall figure of his dad who stood impatiently waiting. If his theory was true, then the lives of both would change forever.

"Took you long enough," John grumbled as he made to pass Dean and access the bathroom. "And since when do you run around butt-naked, though it's nothing I haven't seen before!" he joked taking in his son's lack of a bath-robe.  
"Uh, sorry, dad " Dean replied flustered, grabbing his towel. "I was just thinking of stuff and I forgot."  
"Some girl I imagine," John smiled back, knowing his son's propensity for surrounding himself with cute teens. "There sure ain't no lack of them around you!"  
"No dad, it's not..."  
Dean held back, letting the door close behind his father.  
He couldn't be certain of any of the conclusions he'd been coming to. He needed to be sure before even mentioning such things to his dad who'd be more than shattered if he was wrong.

No, he'd keep his suspicions to himself for now, go to the shop with dad and clear his mind, concentrate on his work, then come back and look at things with a fresh approach. However he couldn't stop himself from booting up his computer as he dressed and entering Singer Spare Parts.  
All he got for his trouble was the business' standard address and phone number, and on Mary and Samuel Singer, there was nothing at all, which just helped to fuel Dean's theory that something strange was going on.

 

The smell of freshly brewed coffee titillated John's nostrils when he entered the kitchen to find a stack of pancakes waiting for him, courtesy of Dean.  
"Doing your old man proud this morning, huh? Usually I gotta drag you outta bed with threats of dire punishment," John quipped. "I can't remember the last time I got this kind of treatment."  
Dean grinned at his father's words. "You always gotta be ready to face the unexpected, Dad! I just thought I'd treat you this morning seeing you stayed up late to wait for me!"

John grimaced. "You're not going to ruin everything by lecturing me on how you're old enough to look after yourself and it's stupid for me to do stuff like that? Well, don't! Just... bear with me. I'll get the message sooner or later that you're all grown up!"  
Dean's face turned serious. "Thanks Dad," he said solemnly. "For all you've done for me. You've always had my back and ….I'll never be able to repay you for that."  
:  
John looked up in surprise. They rarely brought their feelings into the open and it seemed strange that Dean was doing so now.  
"You say that as if something bad's gonna happen to us, son," John declared confused. "Is something wrong?"  
"Na. Can't I just tell my old man what a great dad he's been, or is that too chick-flick for you?" Dean laughed, not really understanding himself why he had felt the urgent need to let his dad know how much he loved and appreciated him.  


Maybe it was because Dean felt that he was standing on the edge of a volcano, one that was about to erupt, changing everything about the landscape that had surrounded them until now.

John studied his son, something was definitely bothering him. He'd raised Dean almost single-handed since Mary died and he recognized the signs, but he didn't probe any further.  
Dean would tell him when he was ready. He was a stubborn kid when he wanted to be, and if questioned would only clam up even more, so John delved into his breakfast and buried the pang of pain that the sweet memory of his lost wife had just dealt him.

 

Dean as he'd promised himself, pushed all thoughts of the Singers from his mind and threw himself into his work on the cars. He was a natural at the job and really enjoyed it, but when lunch-time came round he could no longer stop his mind from going back to Sam and Mary Singer.  
He usually shared a couple of sandwiches and a coffee with his dad and the other two hired hands but he was too worked up to sit around joking in easy camaraderie with them as he usually would, so he made his way to the nearest diner and ordered a coffee.

He wondered where to go from here.  
What was the best way to confirm or negate his suspicions, (or was it just a desperate hope), that Mary and Sam might really be his own mother and brother? If his theory was correct, then the only one who would really have the answers would be Mary Singer herself, Sam probably being as much in the dark as he and John were.

He fingered the phone in his pocket, brought it out and pulled up the number Sam had given him yesterday. He and the kid had bonded in a subtle kind of way and maybe his best bet was to talk to him again. Try to get more info on him and his mom.  


Sammy had told him to call back and let him know he'd gotten home safely. Dean had sent him a message last night but he was sure that the kid would pick up if he called.  
He pressed the button and Sam's phone rang.  
:  
"Dean? " the surprised voice answered.  
"Uh, you asked me to phone you when I got home, so here I am!" Dean replied, happy to hear the kid's voice yet slightly embarrassed too.  
"Dean," Sam repeated, seemingly as awkward as the older boy. "I...um.."  
"Listen, Sammy," Dean butted in. "I really need to talk to you...about stuff."  
"Me too," Sam agreed unexpectedly.  
"Okaaay. But it's not something I wanna do over the phone. It's gotta be face to face."

He could almost see Sam nodding at the other end of the line. "Yeah," the voice came back. "Face to face. I gotta go now, Dean. It's a bad time, but I'll get back to you as soon as I can."  
"Okay, squirt, fine," Dean replied. " But this is important."  
"Yeah, Dean. It really is, " Sam replied, a hitch in his voice.

Singer Salvage.  
_________________  
Sam closed the connection and looked over at the older man.  
"Who was that?" Bobby asked, noting the teary expression in Sam's eyes.  
"I think it was my brother," Sam answered defiantly. "My brother who's been kept from me for all these years, and I want to know why!"

Bobby had always seen Sam as a sweet obedient kid, even though Mary had told him all that had happened that night in Lawrence when Sam had received a visit from a demon, but in that moment despite the moist puppy-like eyes, Bobby could see the strength of character that would one day be an inalienable facet of the adult Sam.

TBC


	9. A Meeting of Brothers

Dean pocketed his phone and took a long gulp of the steaming coffee. The hot liquid almost burned his tongue but if ever he needed something to ground him, it was right now.

Life had been good to him so far, he and his dad had a great relationship, he'd been blessed with intelligence, optimal health and without false modesty, a great body and a handsome face that got him nearly everything he wanted or needed, so why did all that suddenly seem so unimportant when the thought that his baby brother whom he'd believed long dead, might still be alive and living in Sioux Falls?

He deliberately didn't include Mary Singer, for the few loving memories he had of his mother were hard to reconcile with what the woman he'd seen at Singer's might have done- abandon himself and his father. No, he'd take this one step at a time.  
He fingered the phone in his pocket. Sam had said he'd call back

To Hell with this, Dean grunted. He was too fired up to sit around on his ass waiting, it was time to act.

:  
He stopped off at home, flung a change of clothes and some other bits and pieces into a bag, undecided whether to leave a note for his dad or contact him later.  
He compromised by scribbling a few words on the kitchen note-pad.  
At least dad would know he'd gone off voluntarily and was all right, that would avoid Dean having to answer his father's calls for a bit, when they eventually came.  
Somehow Dean was certain there was going to be a huge kickback from whatever he was about to discover.

Snatching a glance at the clock in the hall as he exited the house, he threw himself and his bag into the Impala.  
One o'clock. It would take him over five hours to get to Sioux Falls and as he drove it seemed that the hours were excruciatingly long, so great was his desire to arrive at his destination.

 

Singer Salvage  
::::::::::::::::  
"Listen Sam," Bobby began, trying to reason with the kid. There was no way he was going to give Sam a straight yes or no answer. "I don't know what you think you've found out, but could be you've got your facts mixed up. I've only been away a day and in that space of time you've found yourself a long-lost brother! Don't you think you're sorta rushing into things here, boy?"

The older man saw a flicker of doubt in the teen's eyes but it was quickly replaced with a look of conviction.  
"No Uncle Bobby. Maybe I HAVE rushed through this, but that's only because all the pieces fit together like a perfect puzzle. The guy that was here yesterday is my brother, I just...know it." Sam declared, holding Bobby's gaze, waiting for the older man to confirm or negate what he'd just said.

But Bobby gave him no satisfaction, simply averted his eyes.  
It wasn't his place to say anything, so he kept his mouth closed. This was Mary's business to deal with, and hers alone.

They stood there facing each other like participants in a duel, the boy searching for answers and the man possessing them all but not wanting to give them, until Sam backed off and ran out through the front door with Bobby's "Where are you goin' kid?" ringing in his ears.  
He raced through the yard, down the driveway onto the main road and continued until he was well away from the house, then he pulled out his phone and called Dean Winchester's number.

 

Dean was already on the freeway, the Impala's hood pointed towards South Dakota, when the call from Sam came through.  
"Uh, Dean. I uh.." Sam stammered, at something of a loss as to what to say.  
He'd been certain Bobby would have been more forthcoming with his answers, but the older man had given nothing away, and though Sam was ninety-nine percent sure of his facts, Bobby had managed to instil a grain of doubt in his mind.

"Sammy! I'm on my way to Sioux Falls. I.. well..... I started thinking when I got back home yesterday, and, uh.. I think you and I might be brothers."

At the other end of the line, Sam was struck dumb.  
He'd believed his idea of him and this random stranger who'd shown up in Sioux Falls being brothers was a long shot, and yet here was the other guy telling him the exact same thing-- that HE thought they were brothers too.  
What were the probabilities both boys had felt the same need to investigate the simple afternoon of bonding they'd shared, and more incredulous, what were the odds the feeling had been correct!

 

"Sam? " Dean's voice pulled him from his reverie." You okay there, kid?"  
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I was just taken aback, is all," Sam replied. "I did some digging myself and I came up with the same theory, Dean, that we might be brothers. I'm freaked out, but if it's true, then somebody has a lot of explaining to do."  
"Listen kid, I'll be there in about five hours, then we can talk face to face," Dean replied, his voice calm despite his churning emotions at Sam's confirmation of his own discoveries.

"I'll meet you at the diner where you ate last time, " Sam suggested.  
"Fine by me, I've a feeling I'm gonna need a lot of caffeine to get through this," Dean replied, before cutting the call and concentrating on getting the Impala to its destination as fast as possible.

 

Bobby watched from the doorway as Sam disappeared down the drive, sighed and shook his head in unease.  
He knew why Mary had done what she had, separating herself and her youngest from the rest of the family, and he was also aware of how much pain and sorrow it had cost her, but her sacrifice would have been in vain if Sam had unearthed the truth.

Maybe things just couldn't be avoided, he mused. Some events were simply fated to be and whatever one did to try and change them, they had a way of coming back and hitting you in the face regardless.  
Bobby's well-honed instincts told him this was one of those times.

Well, he'd better warn Mary. He picked up his phone and dialled her number. Better she should be prepared to face the storm that was about to blow all her careful plans to kingdom come.

 

Mary placed a shaky hand on the desk to hold herself up while she listened to Bobby, her legs giving way as the older hunter explained how Sam was certain he and Dean were brothers.  
She had stupidly convinced herself that the meeting between her sons yesterday had been an unfortunate coincidence, and that her almost perfect self-control when she'd seen Dean standing in Bobby's living room had been enough to make sure the boys' encounter would have no lasting effects.  
But she'd been SO wrong, and now her carefully constructed life was about to crumble around her.

"You okay, Mary?"  
"No, I'm NOT okay, Bobby, " she answered. " I... just... I wanna come home but I can't leave the hospital right now. I'll be back as soon as my shift finishes. Is Sam there?"  
"Nope, he asked me if it was true about him and Dean, but I didn't give him an answer. I figured it had better come from you. He'll have holed up in the library or someplace," he said, trying to console her, but truthfully he'd no idea where Sam could have gone. 

He was a smart kid and if he didn't want to be found then he wouldn't be!

 

It took Sam a good while to get to town. Bobby's yard wasn't far out, but he had no need to hurry. Dean wouldn't be here for hours yet, so he had time to fill.  
He wasn't sure if Bobby or even his mom would come looking for him, though he was certain Bobby would have informed Mary by now about what had happened, but he had to talk to Dean first.  
Despite his confusion, a smile came to his face at the knowledge he had a big brother, that he wasn't alone any more.  
He didn't understand why they hadn't been allowed to grow up together, why they'd been separated but they'd find out, he and Dean side by side.

 

Five hours later he was stationed outside the diner where he was to meet with Dean. He glanced through the window but there was no sign of the older boy.

Pulling out his phone to call, he stopped when he saw a black car pull up, engine roaring, into the parking space at the side of the building.  
Quickly he made his way towards it, hovering next to the door while Dean switched off the engine and exited the gleaming classic.

They stood there awkwardly, studying one another.  
When they'd met before, they'd just been two boys who'd instantly bonded, now everything pointed to them being brothers. Strange how things go down.  
"Dean."  
"Sammy."  
The words came out in perfect synchrony as the older boy came forward and pulled the skinny youngster into his arms, and after a brief moment of hesitation Sam's arms mirrored his brother's and held on as tightly as they could.  
TBC


	10. It's Great To Have a Brother

It was six pm.  
In the parking lot of a nondescript diner in Sioux Falls, a young man was holding his beloved baby brother in his arms again for the first time in fourteen long years, a brother he'd believed dead, while at the self-same moment in the home of Bobby Singer a distraught woman was quietly sobbing in the arms of the gruff, good-hearted hunter who had given her and her baby shelter when she'd come to him for help, treating her as a true brother-in-law would and being a devoted and caring uncle to her baby. 

But both she and Bobby aware that this part of their lives was over.

The hunter held on tight while Mary wept for all the choices she'd made to try and keep her family safe, going to the extremes of faking her own and baby Sammy's death.  
She wept for all the pain she knew she'd caused her husband John and for the wrong she'd done Dean, depriving him of his little brother, but she'd had good reason for her actions, at least that's what she kept repeating to herself.

She sighed as she sniffed into Bobby's shirt.  
Now that the cat was out of the bag, there would be a hell of a lot of explaining to do. There was no way to cover things up.  
It was only a question of time before John found out she and Sammy were alive.  
Neither he nor Dean knew anything about the supernatural. How could she ever explain to them her reasons for doing what she had? She could already imagine the disbelief and hatred on their faces when she confronted them.

 

She drew back and wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.  
"What's going to happen now, Bobby?" she asked disconsolately. "What am I going to do? How am I going to explain this whole god-damned mess?"

"Well Mary, that's a million dollar question," Bobby answered gravely. "You're just gonna have to tell them the truth and hope your husband understands, cause there's no way he's not gonna find out. What kind of man is he? How do you think he'll react?"

"I doubt he'll take it well," she sighed.  
"But how can I blame him? Then if I tell him the reason why, that I made a deal with a demon to bring him back to life after the hell-spawn killed him the night my parents died, explain that Dean came back in time and warned me to stay out of Sam's nursery when a demon came to call, I certainly wouldn't be surprised if he didn't believe me.  
God, it sounds incredible even to me who knows it's true!" she exclaimed with a quavering voice.

"Come on, Mary. You'll manage to get through this. I know you will," Bobby said, trying to console her. "I'm not sayin it's gonna be easy but... !  
Maybe it's better in a way that everything is out in the open. We still don't know what the demon's end game is, nor why he infected Sam with demon blood. I know you did all this to try and keep Dean and John safe, but I gotta feeling in my bones that there was NEVER gonna be a way to avoid involving the rest of your family."

"What's that supposed to mean, Bobby?" she asked worriedly, her eyes scrutinizing the older hunter. "Do you know something I don't?"  
"Nope, just a hunch. Dean's warning stopped you from going into Sam's room and confronting the demon. What we don't know is what would have happened if you HAD gone in.  
You changed history that night, girl, and maybe Fate wants to put things back on track. I dunno, time travel and time lines are out of my league, but tampering with them is always iffy."

Mary huffed. "You're saying this is all my fault, that I SHOULD have gone into the nursery that night?"

"Now, now, I'm saying nothing of the sort, Mary. Don't twist my words. We've got no way of knowing what would have happened, we've only got the here and now and that's what we have to deal with, so get yourself ready 'cos Sam's gonna be the first to want some answers when he comes walking back through that door."

Mary nodded. There was no use in crying over split milk.  
Bobby was right, she'd just have to deal and that's what she'd do, though she was dreading what was to come.

 

Dean drew back from his little brother, but his eyes never left his face, floppy chestnut hair, puppy eyes, dimples that were playing around his lips as he smiled up at him.  
The urge to protect this newly discovered brother washed over him like a raging torrent, he'd gotten Sammy back from the dead and nothing was going to separate him from his sibling ever again.

Sam for his part looked up at Dean with quasi-adoration in his eyes.  
He had no memories to fall back on, but the fact that this cool guy with an equally cool car was his big brother filled him with joy.  
Sam had always been the odd one out, or at least he'd felt that way, mainly because of the secret he carried about hunting. His knowledge had set him apart from the other kids causing him to have no intimate friends, though he was generally on good terms with most of his school mates.

Now he had a brother, but then he pondered unhappily, Dean probably knew nothing about hunting. Would it come between them as it had with his school-friends?

Dean noticed the change of expression on Sam's face.

"Something wrong, Squirt?" he asked. "Decided you'd rather not have a big brother after all?"  
"NO!" Sam replied heatedly "I'm so glad you're my brother. I was thinking of something else entirely."  
"Okay then. Why don't we go inside, huh? We've got a lot of catching up to do, make up for lost time."  
Dean placed an arm around Sam's bony shoulders, pulling him towards the diner.

Just then his phone trilled and Dean pulled it out with his free hand. It was dad but he wasn't going to answer just yet, he had other things on his mind, like the little brother he'd just discovered.

Funny how he hadn't given much thought to the fact that John was also about to find out that his youngest son was still alive, his wife too, (Dean wasn't ready to go there yet,) but he selfishly wanted some time alone with Sammy before John came running, as he surely would as soon as Dean informed him.  
"Something wrong?" Sam asked echoing his brother's earlier question  
"Nothing that can't wait for a bit," Dean assured him, tousling Sam's hair and watching amused as the kid shied away. Sam was defensive about his hair then! 

Dean chalked the fact up in the part of his mind where he would conserve all his Sammy-pertinent discoveries! "Nothing's more important than finding out everything about my little bro."  
Sam ducked his head, he wasn't quite ready to tell Dean EVERYTHING about himself yet.

 

"Hi Sam," the motherly waitress smiled in greeting when she came over to the table for their order. "Got yourself a new friend today?" she asked, looking Dean over.  
"Yeah Maisie. But he's not exactly a friend. He's my big brother," Sam added proudly.  
He hadn't meant to say anything but he was bursting to tell the world about Dean, and Maisie just happened to be there.

"Your brother huh, how come I haven't seen him around?" she asked curious. "I'd sure have noticed a good-looking boy like him."  
"Uh, he lives in another state," Sam said uncomfortably, thinking he should have kept his mouth shut!

"Yeah, this little dude is my baby brother," Dean confirmed. "We don't get to see each other too often." He leaned forward conspiratorially."Parent problems."  
"I get it," Maisie nodded knowingly. "It sucks when mom and dad don't get on. What can I bring you guys then?" she said changing the subject.  
Poor kids, some parents can be real douches, she thought to herself as she went off to fill their order.

 

At around the same time, six pm, John had tiredly made his way home.  
Work had been a bitch today. Some clients were the biggest quibblers on the planet and John by nature wasn't a patient man, he'd been forced to cultivate that part of his character for his work.  
"Dean, you home? " he called strolling into the kitchen. The kid hadn't come back to the garage after lunch, but that often happened, especially when he had school stuff to attend to.

He put on the water for some fresh coffee, then slumped down on one of the kitchen chairs, his hand going to the sheet of paper lying on the table. A frown creased his brow as he read, but he shrugged off his immediate instinct to worry.  
He had to remember Dean was a man now. He himself hadn't been all that much older when he'd enlisted in the marines. But hell, it was almost impossible to turn off being a full-time dad!

"Dad, got some business to attend to. Don't worry. I'll get back to you soon." the note read.

Coffee in hand, he pulled out phone, almost shamefully surrendering to his need to hear that Dean was okay.  
He realised he was being ridiculously over-protective but the pain of the loss he'd suffered with the death of Mary and Sam had never left him, and Dean was all he had left, so he called his son's number, but Dean didn't reply.

John lifted his coffee and made his way to the couch. He'd try again later. He was being stupid.

TBC


	11. Back To Bobby's

"So, Sammy, it turns out we both knew something was going on between us after we met yesterday, but what brought you to suspect we were brothers?" Dean asked, curious as to why the kid should even have been interested in chasing up more info on him.

Sam shrugged embarrassed. "When you told me your mom and little brother died in a car accident in 1983, I got curious and I tried to find out more about you," he said, a pinkish flush coming to his cheeks.   
"So I went to the library and eventually I found an article about the accident. Your brother's name was Sam and your mom's Mary; no bodies ever found. I dunno; everything sort of fell into place for me, I just knew I was right. What about you?" Sam asked, still bemused with the idea that the young man sitting across from him was really his big brother.  
The feeling of warmth Sam had felt earlier washed over him again. It was as if he'd always been waiting for someone to appear in his life, but with no idea of whom.   
Now he knew. He'd been waiting for Dean.

"It came to me in the shower of all places," Dean grinned in answer. "As if the hot water had washed away a layer of grime and made me see clearly. But the thing that really confirmed it for me was your mom. It didn't click at the time 'cos I'd no reason to believe there was any connection between us, but when I ran things through my head, Mary's resemblance to my own mom hit me.  
I was only four when she died...disappeared, but I remember her sweet smile and her long blond hair and how she would take me in her arms and hold me close. She used to sing to me and when I was scared, she'd tell me not to be, that angels were watching over me..." Dean hesitated, conscious of the fact that Sam's attention was totally caught up in his story, mesmerized by this glimpse into Dean's memories.

"Then when Sam...you...were born, I thought he was the cutest thing I'd ever seen. I couldn't wait for him to grow up so we could play together." Dean's voice grew wistful. "But from one moment to the next, Sammy was gone, along with mom, and Dad told me I'd never see you guys again, that you were in heaven with the angels."

A look of disgust came over the older boy's face. "Since then I've always hated angels. The douche-bags didn't bother their winged butts watching over US!"

 

Dean shook himself as if emerging from a trance, the memories had seemed so vivid.  
"This is all well and good squirt, but until we get actual confirmation, this brother thing," he continued, waved a finger back and forth, " between us, is all theoretical."

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "And the only one who can give it to us, is my mom and uncle Bobby 'cos I'm sure he knows everything too."

"I gotta ask myself though," Dean added. "If all this is true, why the hell did Mary go off with you and leave dad and me alone? If there was bad feeling between them why didn't they just get a divorce like everyone else? Why all the cloak and dagger stuff, as if our lives were some kind of a b-film spy story or somethin'?"

Sam averted his eyes.   
He couldn't be sure, but his ingrained instinct told him the only logical reason was to do with hunting, something his newly-found 'theoretical' big brother knew nothing about!  
He sighed, knowing that finding out he had a big brother was going to cause a mountain of complications.

 

By this time Maisie had filled their order and Dean thankfully sipped his coffee, which to his delight was delicious, while Sam downed his soda.  
What was his Dad going to say when he found out? Dean unknowingly echoed Sam's thoughts using the same word... 'complications!'  
"So what are we gonna do now? " Dean asked slurping the heavenly black brew.

Sam shrugged. "I suppose we should go ask my mom."  
"Yeah, " Dean agreed, but he shied away just at the thought of facing all the commotion that would inevitable be provoked by doing just that.

 

"You do realize you have a dad now? Right!" Dean reminded Sam.   
"And he's the best dad in the world," he hurried to add as Sam looked up worriedly. "But I've seen him when he's mad and he's not a guy to trifle with. I don't know how he's gonna take all this...Saying it's true, of course."  
But Dean was certain it was. He'd never been so sure of anything as he was that the kid sitting opposite him with the girlie hair and the big puppy-dog eyes was his baby brother.

"Do you think he's... ? What do you think he's gonna do when he finds out mom and I aren't dead?" Sam said in trepidation.  
"Good question. I know he's gonna love you Sammy, not too sure about your mom though!" he frowned.

"Maybe she had a good reason Dean. The way you talked about her, your memories, she must have loved you a lot," Sam observed, sad that his big brother might feel that his mother had abandoned him because she didn't love him.

Sam was angry with his mom for taking him from Dean, but Sam knew she loved him, had protected him all his life, and he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt now that he'd calmed down and had Dean by his side.  
"Huh, " Dean frowned unconvinced. "If she loved me, why did she leave me?"  
Sam kept silent. He had no answer to give.

 

The boys walked out of the diner towards the car.  
"Is this yours?" Sam asked inspecting the Impala. "I'd have thought a cool guy like you would have a SUV or something."  
Dean gave him a gentle cuff to the back of the head, causing Sam to look up at him in surprise.

"This is THE car for cool guys," he corrected his sibling. "It belonged to my dad and I've drooled over it ever since I was a kid. When I passed my driving test he gave it to me. She's my baby, so little brother, you be mindful to treat her as she deserves."  
"Yeah, whatever," Sam answered rubbing his head, a disgruntled expression appearing on his fac,; a scowl that Dean would later come to baptise as a bitch-face!

 

They slid into the car, Dean behind the wheel and Sam by his side.  
"Where to Sammy?" he sighed, wishing everything could magically be fixed without all the clamour that was to come, and that he could just hang out with his baby brother and make up for all the years they'd been kept apart.  
"Home, I guess," Sam replied, stretching out comfortably on the ample leather seat.

 

Bobby's House  
\------------------  
Mary was the first to hear the roar of the car as it growled its way to the front door.

She'd flopped down on the couch while Bobby had taken to fumbling about in the kitchen, both waiting for Sam to come back and ply them with questions, questions she didn't want to answer.  
Sam knew about the supernatural, she had trained him as best she could, just as her own father had trained her.  
He could shoot, fight too, his skinny body more wiry than it seemed, he could read Latin and carry out the less elaborate spells but his real expertise was in research.   
Sam could find a needle in a haystack when it came to sifting through a mountain of information. She had also been taking him on the occasional hunt and he'd responded encouragingly.

She'd given him the basic means to defend himself, but how was she ever going to reveal to him that a demon had bled into his mouth, she didn't know if she ever could.   
Sam thought himself too much of a freak already, what would her baby do if he knew this?

 

Sighing she got up.   
Sam must have gotten a lift home, but when she saw both her children getting out of the old Impala that had once belonged to her husband, she realised things were going to get even more difficult.  
Why was Dean here? She'd expected Sam to come storming home, but what had brought Dean back, unless Sam had called him here.

Things were rushing out of her control like a runaway train. She was a strong woman but even the strongest can fall.

"Bobby!" was the only strangled word she got out before the door opened and her two sons walked into the room, side by side.  
TBC


	12. Explanations

After fourteen long years of being apart. the opening of Bobby's creaky door was all it took for Mary to be presented with the sight of her sons entering the room together for the second time in only two days.  
Fate when it kicked you in the ass, it did it with style, she sighed silently.

Never more glad of Bobby's stalwart presence at her back, she took a second to enjoy the presence of her two boys. Even with all the crap that was going to hit the fan, her heart filled with pride at the sight of her two beautiful babies, her expression soft as she contemplated them.  
Unfortunately the expression in the eyes of her sons was anything but friendly, Sam was staring at her as if he was seeing her for the first time and not much liking what he saw, while Dean was watching her warily, a cold chill in his green eyes.

They stood there, facing each other for an interminable second, no-one wanting to bear the burden of uttering the first words, like two sets of gunslingers waiting for the first to draw.

In the end it was the one who had the lesser emotional entanglement who opened his mouth.  
"Uh..I'm sure you boys must have a lot of questions," Bobby said, not even trying to deny the truth of Sam and Dean's brotherhood.  
"But... it's... complicated," he continued, lifting his cap, giving his scalp a healthy scratch before settling it back on his head.

 

"It's okay, Uncle Bobby," Sam said, his voice gentle as he addressed the older man.  
"The only one who has any explaining to do is mom," he continued, his eyes darting towards her, "And she'd better have a good one for having taken me away from my big brother and my...father."  
He stumbled over the last two words.

Sam had no memory of him, had never even known John Winchester existed until he'd met Dean, so calling a perfect stranger 'dad' came difficult to him.  
He turned his head to glance at Dean, but the older boy stood silent, eyes fixed on Mary, his expression indecipherable. He seemed happy enough to let Sam do the talking for now, so Sam concentrated his attention on his mother.

 

"Bobby says it's 'complicated', mom, so maybe you should just start from the beginning. Why did you take me and run off, staging an accident? If you and …..your husband didn't get on, why not just divorce? At least I would've gotten to grow up with Dean and my real dad."  
Sam's voice was no longer as firm as it had been, the emotion of all that had happened in the last two days beginning to take its toll.  
He felt Dean clapping a hand on his shoulder, then coming to stand in front of him and taking up from where he'd left off.

 

"Sam asked you a question," Dean declared, his voice cold. "Just what did dad and I do that was horrible enough to make you take Sammy and go off and leave us without a second thought.  
You don't know the pain I felt when I went into Sammy's nursery that morning and his cot was empty. He always smiled and pumped his little fists when he saw me looking down at him. YOU took him away and I never got to see him growing up, never got to play with my baby brother. If you wanted to get away from dad why didn't you go by yourself and leave me Sammy?"  
Unlike Sam, Dean's voice was a steady as a rock.  
The woman in front of him was his mother, but she had wounded him in a way no other had, and Dean Winchester who was the nicest, easiest going guy one could hope to meet, felt his heart go hard as he waited for an explanation.

Mary's eyes filled with tears and she took a tentative step forward, but Dean stood still, his demeanour unyielding.  
He'd found his mother, but he'd lived without her for fourteen years, he could manage just fine in the future too.  
Whatever the reason, whatever the excuse she came up with, in his heart he knew he could never forgive her for what she had taken from him, and from dad!

 

"Dean, I can explain everything. I know it's hard to believe, but I didn't mean to cause you and John any harm. What I did, it was to protect you both."  
Mary sighed, knowing she'd be forced to reveal many things to Dean if she ever hoped he'd begin to understand the reasons for what she'd done, and the irony of it all was that she'd acted on the words of Dean himself---- well of another Dean in another time line, a reality she'd altered completely because of her eldest son's warning.

Dean tilted his head and snorted. "Well I sure wouldn't like to see what you might have done if you were REALLY trying to hurt us!"

"That's unfair, son " Bobby broke in. "Give your mother a chance to explain, but know that when she does, your life's gonna change forever, and if you don't believe me, you can ask your brother. What Mary has to say is all wrapped up in hunting, and Sam here knows what I'm talking about."

 

"What does he mean Sammy? What has 'hunting' got to do with all this?" Dean asked his brother, confused. "They take you out to shoot a rabbit now and then, so what?"  
Now it was Sam who was at a loss for words.

He certainly didn't want to be the one to reveal to his civilian brother that the horrors in the crappy movies Hollywood regularly churned out, were for real, but he was an intelligent kid and it was obvious to him now that Mary taking him and running off had everything to do with the supernatural, and that made him feel even worse.  
"It's complicated," Sam stuttered.  
"Wow, that seems to be the word of the day!" Dean grunted, more confused than ever. Just what was going on? The more he was was hearing, the less he was understanding.

"Come on Sammy. You're the only one I trust in this room, little brother. Whatever you tell me, I'll believe you."  
Sam sighed. "You know the things you were afraid of when you were a kid, the monsters in the closet, under the bed? Well they're all real. Monsters exist, and Bobby, mom and I hunt them."

 

He lifted his eyes to Dean.  
His big brother was looking at him as if he had sprouted wings, but Sam kept his gaze steady and limpid and Dean realised his brother was telling the truth.  
"You really mean what you're saying Sammy, but that's nonsense! Monsters don't exist. These two," he pointed to his mother and Bobby. "They've brain-washed you or something'" he insisted, unwilling to believe the truth in his sibling's eyes.  
"No Dean. It's true. I've seen them myself, ghosts, vampires, shape-shifters... There's a parallel world out there that very few people know about."

Dean felt his legs turning to jelly. Whatever he'd been expecting, it wasn't this.  
"Well, I'll listen, but hunting or no hunting," he frowned, looking over at Mary "You left me and dad, and took away Sammy and I still haven't heard why."

TBC


	13. Sometimes Explanations Aren't Enough.

At that moment the revelation of the existence of 'monsters' was far less important to Dean than knowing the reason why his mother had deserted him and his dad fourteen years ago without a backward glance.  
He'd survived eighteen years without ever running into a 'monster', so he honestly didn't give a fuck if they were real.

All that occupied his thoughts was that this woman, Mary Winchester, had taken Sam, run off and left him without his little brother.  
He was really in no mood to be fobbed off with an incredible story about monsters.

 

Mary sneaked a glance at Bobby before speaking, but the older man just shrugged.  
He had no advice to offer. Whatever it was Mary had avoided by running away, it had simply been delayed.

Bobby Singer didn't believe in coincidences. Fate had wriggled its way back into the Winchesters' lives by causing Dean and Sam to run into each other in Sioux Falls, when the probabilities of that happening were almost nil.  
Moreover Bobby was certain that whatever Mary had avoided that night by taking Sam and running, was getting ready to come along and kick her in the ass.

That was the trouble with Fate. You thought you'd bundled it out the door just to find it strolling back in through the window. Add to that the fact his gut was screaming at him that a storm was brewing, and these Winchesters were going to be at the heart of it.  
Nope, he had no advice to give the distraught woman, she'd just have to play it by ear.

 

Bobby had taken Mary in soon after she'd tuned up on his doorstep with the child in her arms.  
She'd told him she'd found his name though old hunter contacts of her father. They'd assured her Robert Singer was a decent man who had lost his wife via a supernatural tragedy, and that he possessed an extensive library of occult books and objects.  
Just what Mary needed.

She'd only meant to ask him for the use of his books to help her out with some research she was doing, but she'd developed an instant empathy for the older hunter and Bobby himself had enjoyed having a woman about the house again, so when he asked her if she wanted to stay on permanently she had gratefully accepted.  
She had nowhere else to go anyway, and here Sam would have a stable home while she tried to find out why the yellow-eyed demon she'd made such an ill-defined deal with all those years ago, had visited her baby's nursery on his six-month's birthday.  
Truth to tell though, she hadn't gotten any closer to an answer.  
:  
As yet she had no idea why the demon had materialized in Sam's room or why the drops of blood were dotted in and around Sam's lips.  
More than once she wondered if she hadn't made a terrible mistake in remaining outside Sammy's door that night, but then she thought back to nineteen seventy-three and Dean's warning.   
He'd seemed so sincere in what he'd said, she'd seen the tears forming in the young man's eyes and though she had no clue as to what he meant, she'd believed him.

Whatever!   
There was no changing things now, she'd acted on his words and she'd have to deal.  
She glanced at Dean's eyes, so similar to those of the Dean she'd met back then, but devoid of any of the empathy and ...love ...the 1973 one had possessed, for now she understood the emotions she'd seen in the adult Dean's eyes had been love, love for her. 

 

"Why don't you both sit down," she sighed. "This isn't going to be easy to explain."  
"I've got all the time in the world," Dean retorted, not willing to bend in the slightest. "And this isn't a social visit. I just want to know why you ran off and left me and dad."

 

"All right. My maiden name is Mary Campbell, " she began. "My family comes from a long line of hunters going back to before the colonization of America. You could say it was 'the family business.'  
My own mom and dad were hunters and I was brought up in the life.  
At first I didn't mind. It was cool. I had a secret life no-one at school knew anything about. I was a kind of supergirl I suppose, but as I got older I began to hate everything about hunting.  
I wanted to get away from all the killing and the suffering I saw on a near-daily basis. I wanted out. I wanted normal but I was never strongly motivated enough to break away until I met John."

She smiled wistfully, thinking back on her handsome husband. How even though he'd been a marine in Vietnam and had seen many horrible things, he was an innocent civilian as far as the supernatural was concerned.  
She pushed the memory aside and resumed her tale.

"I knew this was my chance to leave the world of monsters behind, the justification I needed to confront my father and say good-bye to the life .  
We were so in love. John promised he'd take me away, have our own house, kids and live happily ever after, but I was naïve to think it would be so easy. That's where you come in Dean," she said, searching out her elder son's eyes.

"Huh," Dean snorted scornfully. "Right, me! I wouldn't be surprised if you twist everything round to make ME the culprit. What the hell do I have to do with all this? Until yesterday I thought you were dead and buried."  
"Well, you have everything to do with this Dean, at least some version of you does," she answered, hurt at her son's hostile attitude even though she understood it.

Dean stared at her as if she was crazy.

"Sammy," he said turning to his brother. "Why don't we get out of here. 'Monsters are real' is already weird bullshit, but I draw the line at the existence of another 'version' of me."  
"Dean," Sam replied placatingly. He was more willing than his big brother to let Mary finish her explanation. "I know this is hard for you to take in, but believe me, I've seen some really freakish stuff myself. We've gotta let mom finish."

Dean wavered, he just wanted to take Sam and drag him out of this coven of crazies.   
He didn't understand why, but he had a really bad feeling about all this and he didn't want to hear any more, nor did he want to know about 'hunting' or about other 'versions' of himself or about the fucking supernatural.   
He wanted to grab Sam, bundle him into the Impala and take him home to dad.  
Maybe he was being hard on Mary but he couldn't find it in his heart to forgive her, whatever her reasons were.

When it all came down to basics, she had run off and taken Sammy with her, and he didn't know what could ever make that right, but Sam was looking up at him with a pleading expression in his dewy eyes and Dean nodded.

 

"Okay, I'll hear you out but I can't guarantee I'm gonna believe what you tell me, " he conceded eventually.  
"That's all I ask," Mary replied. "That you hear me out."

"In 1973, a young man turned up at my parents' house. He was a hunter too, and to cut a long story short, we had a run in with a demon whose eyes were yellow. We thought it strange because usually their eyes are black. Anyway this demon killed my mom, then my dad and then he killed ...John."

She paused, knowing her words would resonate badly with her elder son.

Dean huffed again and shook his head in ever-increasing disbelief.  
"Right, so the guy who raised me is a doppelgänger, oh wait. Could be he's a ghost! You really expect me to believe this crap?"

"Dean, " Sam interrupted. "You said you'd let her finish."  
"Okay Sam, but only 'cause it's you that's asking."

"I threw myself down beside John's dead body,” Mary continued after a second. "And the demon offered me a deal. He said he'd bring John back to life in exchange for a favour. Usually when you make a deal with a demon, it wants your soul, but this one didn't. All he wanted was permission to come to my house on the 2nd of November 1983."

 

She closed her eyes tightly for a second as the memory of that day washed over her.  
"I was desperate. I wanted John alive so much that I sealed the deal. I don't have any excuse for what I did. I know it was selfish of me and I should have known better; but it is what it is."

"Okay, say I believe you. Where does this 'version' of me come into all this?" Dean frowned.

"YOU warned me, Dean. I didn't know who you were or that you'd travelled back from the future.  
You told me not to go into Sam's nursery that night whatever happened. Well something did happen that night, and it went against every fibre of my being not to barge into the room, but your words came rolling back and I hesitated, remaining outside the door and just peeking in."

This time it was Sam who spoke up.  
"You never told me this," he accused. "Why didn't you tell me? What did the demon want with me?"

"And when was I supposed to tell you, Sam? You were a kid, you still are. I meant to tell you when you were older but well," she waved a hand at Dean. "Sometimes things don't work out as you expect.   
As for the demon. I still don't know what it wants. That's what me and Bobby have been researching all these years."

She turned to Dean.  
"That's why I took Sam and left. I knew nothing good could come from the demon's presence in our house and I wanted to save you and John. Let you both have a life away from anything to do with hunting and the supernatural. I did it for the best, to protect you and your father," she said earnestly.

Dean's expression grew cold.  
"I'm through with listening to this shit. I should call my dad right now and tell him to come up here and sort things out, but I don't know how he'll react, so I'm gonna take Sammy and go home to Lawrence. I think Dad had better hear this in baby steps, and it's time Sammy got to know his dad. You coming' Sam?" he asked his little brother.

Sam nodded.   
" Yeah. I want to meet my dad. All the rest has waited fourteen years, it can wait a little longer. I'll go pack a bag and meet you at the car, " he said without a backward glance, leaving Mary with her heart in little pieces.  
"Sam," she called as he walked out the door.   
"Not now, mom," he answered."You'll have to give me some time."

"Well it was nice meeting you guys," Dean grimaced as he stalked out the door to the Impala, leaving Mary to be comforted in Bobby's sympathetic hold.  
TBC


	14. John Meets His Son.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary of earlier chapters.  
> ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::  
> The night Azazel paid a visit to the Winchester house when Sam was six-months old, Mary didn't go into Sam's nursery so she didn't die on the ceiling, but she did recognise the yellow-eyed demon and decided to take baby Sammy and leave Dean and John by themselves, to keep them safe from any supernatural backlash.
> 
> Fourteen years later Dean accidentally meets a teenage Sam and the truth comes out.  
> Now Dean and Sam have to tell John Winchester the truth too.  
> Dean is eighteen, Sam fourteen.  
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The silence inside the Impala was palpable, both teens mulling over what had just happened back at Bobby Singer's house, truths and revelations buried for fourteen years coming to the surface and turning their lives upside down.

 

Dean sneaked a quick look at the boy sitting next to him in the passenger seat, his little brother!  
A warm glow washed over him as he contemplated the unfamiliar words.  
Baby Sammy, the cute infant in the photos Dad had laid out on the dresser like it was an altar, was right here beside him, solid and alive with his wide hazel eyes, skinny body and mop of unruly chestnut hair.

 

Growing up, Dean had never felt the absence of other siblings, he and his dad had a relationship that bordered more on best friends than father-son, but now Sam's presence filled a void he never even knew he had.  
Sam's head was turned towards the window, apparently deeply interested in the passing country-side.  
Dean glanced at the road, the last thing he needed was to end up with the Impala wrapped around a tree, but for now the car was the only one on the empty highway, so his eyes travelled back to Sam.

The teen's hands were grasped around his duffel and Dean could see the way they trembled.  
So, Dean mused, Sam who had grown up in a world of monsters, something Dean still had seen no proof of nor believed in, was as nervous as him.  
Demons! What the hell, Singer and his new-found mother could be members of a weirdo cult for all he knew, and they could have brain-washed his little brother. Every mile that brought them closed to Lawrence, to their dad and away from the madness of Singer's junk yard was a mile closer to normal for his little brother.

 

Just when Dean couldn't take any more of the silence in the car, Sam spoke up.  
"Dean.."  
"Yeah?"  
"What's he like? Your dad, I mean," Sam asked hesitantly.  
"Our dad," Dean answered firmly. "He's great, Sammy. The best dad in the world. You're gonna love him."  
Sam nodded doubtfully before continuing. "But he doesn't know me. What if he doesn't like me? Maybe you should tell him about me before we get to Lawrence and not spring all this on him. I wouldn't like to meet my dad after all this time just to have him die of a heart attack.”

Dean chuckled, stretching out a hand and ruffling his sibling's tousled hair.

"You're joking, right! Some things are better explained face to face, Sammy. And don't worry, dad's a great guy but he's one tough cookie. He's an ex-marine. It'll take more than a long-lost son to kill him."

Sam playfully swatted Dean's hand away and gave him a toothy grin, his dimples out in full force. "The name's Sam!"  
"So you think he's gonna be happy to see me?"  
"What do you think, moron. He's gonna be over the moon," Dean grinned back, his smile every bit as engaging as his brother's. "Just as I am," he added. "I found the little brother I thought was dead and gone, what could make me happier than that?"  
Sam looked over at him with moist eyes. "Dean, I'm just as happy to have found you. A big brother I never even suspected of having."  
"Well Dad's gonna be happy too, squirt," Dean assured him.

 

Neither brother had mentioned the elephant in the room- Mary.  
Dean wondered how dad would react when he found out the truth about his wife and what she'd done. Well they wouldn't have long to wait as the outskirts of Lawrence came in to view.

 

Dean pulled up in front of a modest two-story house with a tidy garden.  
"Here we are, dude." Dean announced. "This is home. Where you used to live with me and dad until..."

Sam didn't reply, too busy contemplating the house and what life would have been like if his mom hadn't taken him and left Dean and his dad on their own.  
Dean lingered a moment, giving his little brother time to take things in.  
He placed a comforting hand on Sam's shoulder, understanding how difficult it must be for the kid to find out he'd once lived in this unknown house.

 

"Is your dad inside? " Sam asked, fearful now that the time had come to meet him.  
"Our dad," Dean corrected again, pulling out his phone.  
"He should still be at the shop. I didn't tell him where I was going so he's bound to be worried."

 

Five minutes later the imposing figure of John Winchester came into view at the end of the street.  
Dean smiled at his brother. "Come on Sammy. This is it. "  
Sam gulped but Dean cupped a soothing hand on the nape of the boy's neck. "Don't worry, kiddo. Everything's gonna be fine."

Sam accepted his brother's comforting caress before getting out and steadying himself against the side of the Impala.  
He was about to meet his father, a man he'd never known and never would have if he hadn't bumped into Dean two days ago.  
Sam could scarcely believe how his life had been turned upside down in such a short time, but the youngest Winchester couldn't know that the threads of Fate had begun to knit together to mend the rift Mary had caused when she'd defied the destiny that had been traced out for her.

 

"Dean, son. You had me worried. Why didn't you pick up when I called. Is everything okay? " the gruff voice asked when John came abreast of the two teens.  
"I'm fine, Dad," Dean smiled. "I... uh ...couldn't answer. I was..busy."

Once John had assured himself of his son's well-being, he turned curious eyes on the younger boy who was leaning against the Impala as if it was the only thing keeping him from falling down.  
"Who's this Dean? You gonna introduce me?" John asked, his attentive gaze raking over the unfamiliar figure.  
He'd met all of Dean's friends and he couldn't remember having set eyes on this kid before. A kid that was staring at him with wide teary eyes.

 

Suddenly Dean found himself at a loss for words.  
It had seemed so easy in the Impala to reassure Sam that Dad would take the discovery of having a long-lost son with composure, but now that he was face to face with John, things were different.  
He could feel his father's gaze on him, waiting for an answer and Dean understood that whichever way he put this, it was going to be a blow for his dad, so he took a deep breath and launched into an explanation.

 

"Dad, I know what I'm going to say is gonna seem weird, but you've gotta trust me that it's the truth."  
Dean circled the Impala coming to stand by Sam's side, feeling comforted by the physical closeness of the younger boy, and his intuition told him it was the same for Sam.

"Remember when you sent me to take a client's car up to Sioux Falls a couple of days ago, well when I was there I got attacked and took a blow to the head. Sammy here came to the rescue. You wouldn't think to look at him but he can kick some serious ass!" Dean declared trying to keep things light.

"What! Why didn't you say anything, Dean? You okay?" John asked flustered by Dean's revelation.

"I'm fine, dad. Sam took me to his house and tended to me better than Florence Nightingale herself!" he smiled, trying to calm his father's worried glare while sending an encouraging glance at Sam, who was leaning ever more into his side.  
John's attention shifted to the younger teen.  
There were thousands of 'Sams' around the country, yet it still gave him a jolt to pronounce his dead baby's name, even more now that a 'Sam' was standing right next to Dean, just as it might have been if not for the fatal accident.

"Thanks for looking out for Dean," he said. "I'm in your debt, kid. If there's anything I can do, just ask."  
Sam nodded, knowing what was coming next and feeling terrified at what John might say.

 

"While Sammy was patching me up we got to talking and …...well... uh... we found out we've got a lot in common," Dean was saying.  
John face took on a confused expression, not understanding where his son was going with this.

"Dad," Dean said gently, aware now that he'd underestimated the shock the revelation would cause his father. "There's no easy way to tell you this."  
He curled an arm around Sam's shoulders before continuing.  
"In the car accident that killed mom and Sam, there were never any bodies found..." Dean saw his dad tense up at the memory.

"Why are you bringing this up Dean?" John interrupted. "You know the bodi...Mary and the baby were swept away by the powerful river currents..."

 

Dean squeezed Sam's shoulder before pushing on.  
"No dad, the bodies were never found because they NEVER died in the crash. They survived, both of them. This kid here," He smiled at his little brother. " This kid here is Sammy, OUR Sammy, my kid brother. YOUR son."  
John reeled back as if he had taken a sledgehammer punch to the chin.  
"What the hell are you saying, Dean!" he gasped. "What's wrong with you? Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?"

 

Dean remained silent, waiting for his dad to assimilate what he'd just told him. Sam had been right to worry about how John would take the truth.  
He met Sam's eyes and tried to instil tranquillity in his gaze.  
"Maybe we better go inside, Dad, " Dean declared. " I think you need to sit down before you fall down."

John seemed to come back into himself at Dean's words.  
His son would never have suggested anything so preposterous without good reason, but what he was saying COULDN'T be true. He stared at the boy standing next to Dean, glued to his side.  
The kid was pale, he looked as if he was going to faint, held up only by Dean's arm stretched around his slim shoulders.

John searched Dean's eyes.  
There was no hint of subterfuge in them. The green eyes reflected only sincerity and truth. Dean believed what he'd said, he truly believed this boy was his brother.  
Well maybe John should start believing it too. Hell knows he wanted to!

"Sam?" he whispered taking a stumbling step forward.  
He watched Sam glance up at Dean, as if asking him what to do and at Dean's answering nod Sam threw himself onto the oldest Winchester, while John's arm came up around the trembling kid and pulled him close.  
John had only Dean's improbable explanation to make him believe this kid was really his baby, yet holding him near, he understood it was true, for every fibre of his being was shouting it out loud and clear.

 

"Sammy. Is it really you?"  
He breathed into his baby's hair, basking in the feel and scent of his son, of the flesh and blood he'd believed dead and he thanked whatever gods had decided John Winchester was to be blessed this day.  
His eyes full of wonder, he glanced over at Dean whose face was wet with tears.  
"C'mere son."  
And Dean joined with his father and brother in a threefold hug of resurrection.

TBC


	15. Back To Sioux Falls

John Winchester held his sons in his arms, wondering what he'd done to deserve this miracle; his dead boy returned to him after nearly fourteen years thanks to a chance meeting between Dean and the young teen who was currently sobbing into his shirt. He reluctantly drew back and held them both at arm's length, wanting to imprint this moment on his mind forever.

He registered Dean's proud happy smile, proud because he'd been the one to find his brother and happy because he'd been able to give his dad this wonderful gift, and Sam's uncertain one, overwhelmed and not yet quite sure of his place in this new family.  
"Let's go inside, boys," he said eventually. "I guess we've got a lot to talk about."

Dean threw his arm around his newly found little brother, gave his shoulder a squeeze and led him into the house with John bringing up the rear, and though he was relieved his dad had trusted him enough to believe about Sammy, he knew this was only the first step to the resolution of a story that had begun fourteen years ago.  
He'd told his dad that Sam AND Mary had survived the accident, yet his dad hadn't mentioned her. John was too smart not too have picked up on it and Dean wondered what would happen when he heard about the way Sam had been brought up by his wife, among all that supernatural crap.

Sam glanced around curiously as he entered the house. Dean led him through a comfortable living room into the kitchen and sat him down at the table.  
"Don't know about you, kiddo but I need a hot coffee right about now."  
Sam nodded. He wasn't particularly fond of coffee but if ever he needed a burst of caffeine this was it.  
Dean set out three cups, certain his dad needed one too, if not something much stronger!

John walked in a few minutes later, his eyes glassy with dried tears and sat down beside Sam, studying him .  
The boy didn't resemble Dean in the slightest, but then his eldest took after Mary. He could see a lot of himself in the teen's features plus Sam had his own mother's eyes, a strange mix of green and hazel, inimitable.

"So," he began, sporting a wry smile, "It's not every day a dad gets a visit from his dead son, well not unless he's a ghost, that is."

Sam shuffled uncomfortably, glancing over at Dean for guidance, and his brother rose to the occasion.  
"Na, Sammy might be as skinny as a ghost but he's real enough," Dean grinned ruffling his brother's hair. "No spirit would go around with a head of floppy hair like this."  
Sam gazed daggers up at him but there was no malice in it, and John was taken aback at the way the two seemed so natural in each other's company after such a short time.

Dean poured the coffee and placed a mug in front of each of them.  
"You want milk in yours, Sammy?" he asked, smiling at his brother's nod. "You sure you're my little brother and not my sister?" he teased receiving a trouncing glare from the teen.  
Once the three were settled in with the coffee, an awkward silence fell over the little group; there was so much to discuss and no-one really knew where to begin.

 

"Uh.." John hummed.."So Sam, tell me all about yourself."  
"Well I go to school in Sioux Falls. I get good grades. mostly A's. I help around the yard. That's about it," he shrugged, looking over at Dean for help.  
:  
Dean sighed. He couldn't leave this on Sam's shoulders. He was the one who had to do the explaining.  
"Dad, as far as I've been able to understand, this was all Mary's doing. She faked the accident, let you think she was dead, then took Sam to stay with a man called Bobby Singer who owns a junk yard in Sioux Falls.  
She took Singer's name and Sam was under the impression that he was Singer's blood nephew, his dad, Mr Singer's brother, having died in a crash when Sam was a baby, and Sammy had no idea he was a Winchester. It was a lucky coincidence than Sam and I met, otherwise we'd never have found out we were brothers.  
That's the gist of the story, dad.  
Both Sam and I found tangible evidence of our brotherhood and while I didn't recognise Sam's mom when I saw her, I eventually connected the resemblance to the photos on the dresser. It's definitely her. Anyway she admitted it when I called her out."

 

"You saw her, Mary? You spoke to her?" John asked softly.  
"Yeah, I did, dad," Dean replied angrily. "I was so furious with her. She left us and took Sammy with her. I don't think I can ever forgive her for that."  
He stared over at Sam who nodded.

"Neither can I, " the teen agreed. "She's my mom and I love her but she took me away from my big brother, from you dad and from my real family. I've been living a lie. My whole life's been a string of untruths." Sam said, staring back at Dean.  
:  
John's face took on a thoughtful expression.  
"I loved Mary and I know she loved me. If she did something as serious as this she had to have a good reason. And I've got to hear it from her lips." John said eventually.  
"Tomorrow you boys will take me to her, " he said getting up and exiting the house in a rush.  
"Dad!" Dean called after him.  
"Dean," Sam pitched in. "He's just upset. He needs time to think. It's as much a shock to him as it was to us."  
"Yeah, I suppose," Dean answered, but his dad was always cool and collected, and to see him run out like a kid was upsetting.  
"Come on, I'll give you the tour Sam, and show you where to sleep."

Their first stop was the dresser laid out with the photos of the Winchesters, and Sam felt his eyes moisten at the smiling faces of the happy family they once were.  
His favourite had to be the one where little Dean was sitting on the floor holding his infant self in his arms, smiling proudly at the camera.  
"You were a cute kid, Dean," Sam grinned. "Blond hair and bangs. Huh!"  
"And now it's you who has them, Sammy; pay-back is a bitch," Dean parried.

Dean led Sam up to his spacious bedroom.  
"This used to be dad's room but he gave it to me. Over there's the sofa-bed. You can sleep on it tonight. "  
"This is great, Dean " Sam answered enthusiastically. "I had my own room at Bobby's. I've never slept in the same room with anyone else, except my mom when I had nightmares and stuff. Are there only two bedrooms? The house seems bigger from the outside?"  
"No, the third bedroom was your nursery and Dad left it as it was."  
:  
Dean took him across the hall and opened the door. The furniture was covered with dust sheets but the shape of a cot could clearly be seen below one of them. The room itself was clean and in order.  
"Dad sometimes comes up here and potters around," Dean shrugged. "He said we don't need the room so might as well leave things as they are."

Sam walked over to the cot.  
"So this is where I used to sleep until mom..."  
"Yeah," Dean answered. This room had always creeped him out since his mom and Sammy had gone; he knew it was silly but he'd always felt there was an aura of evil lingering in it. He shivered.  
"Let's go make up the bed in my room. It's getting late and tomorrow Dad wants to go to Sioux Falls, so maybe we should turn in," he declared, shepherding Sam towards the door.  
:  
The next morning the boys took their places in the Impala. John was behind the wheel, even though he'd given the car to Dean.  
"Sorry, Dean but I'm driving."  
"It's okay, dad," Dean answered, slipping into the passenger seat and leaving the back seat to his little brother.  
The Winchester men set out on their journey of discovery, for even Sam, with all his knowledge of the supernatural, didn't know the truth of why he hadn't been allowed to grow up with his family.

TBC


	16. The Coming Together of John and Mary

Each of the three Winchesters were caught up in their own thoughts while the Impala drew closer to Sioux Falls, wrestling with their individual hopes, doubts and fears.

In the back seat, Sam brooded on how his life had been a lie, how he'd grown up thinking he was someone else. He studied the back of Dean's head. All these years he'd had a brother he'd never known about. He'd been deprived of his true family.

Dean's thoughts were eerily similar.  
Why had his little brother been taken from him? That baby he'd held in his arms for no longer than a few months.  
Equally hurtful if not more so, was the question of why his mom had left him. Had he been such an unlovable five-year old that she'd preferred running as far away from him as possible.  
:  
John's thoughts were of a different nature.  
He'd loved Mary passionately although they'd had their ups and downs like many couples. Both were stubborn and both had the tendency to stalk off in a rage just to come back together again, making up with apologies and soul-satisfying sex.  
Like Dean, the idea she'd run off and left him without a word, taking their baby and allowing him to believe they were dead, was unfathomable  
Had she hated him so much, while pretending to love him?

 

:  
:  
Mary lay back on the couch dealing with the tail-end of a migraine brought on by the realisation that all the decisions she'd made to try and save her family were coming back to thoroughly kick her in the ass.

When she'd seen Sam walk out the door in company of his big brother, she'd felt her world collapse around her.  
Dean was her son and Sam's brother, that was true, but Sam had only known him for a handful of days, yet he'd left her and Bobby who had helped raise him without a second thought.  
Had she done the wrong thing?  
Should she have done what her heart was telling her to do that fateful night when Azazel was threatening her baby? Should she have walked into the room despite the warning from the young man she now knew to be her own grown-up son Dean.  
:  
"It's no use you torturing yourself with what might have been, Mary," Bobby's gruff voice broke in on her musings.  
"What's done is done and we're all going to have to deal with the consequences. Wondering if you did the right thing is gonna get us nowhere. You made the choice you thought was for the best."

Mary sat up on the seat and took Bobby's hand in her own.  
"You've been so good to me Bobby. You took me and Sam in and gave us a home when you had no obligation to do so. You've been like a father to him."

She sighed. "I thought I was keeping Dean and John safe by forestalling them any contact with the supernatural, but now I feel I've only made things worse."  
"Come on, girl. You're one of the most courageous hunters I've encountered and you've been the best of mothers to Sam. I'm sure things'll work out for the best," Bobby declared consolingly.  
"I'd recommend you to get ready though, for I'm betting my balls that before long the Winchesters are gonna come driving up to the door demanding answers, and you gotta be ready for them, especially your husband's! I've a sure-fire feeling he's gonna be pissed," Bobby added.

Mary glanced up at him ruefully. "I reckon him being pissed is the least of it. The hard part comes when I have to explain the whys and wherefores of what I did. I'm gonna have to tell them about the supernatural and you know how civilians react to that."  
Bobby patted her shoulder consolingly, while the whine of an engine told them the Winchesters had arrived.

 

John exited the Impala and studied his surroundings.  
This junk yard filled with the carcasses of dead cars was where Mary [he couldn't yet get his mind round the idea that she was alive] and Sam had lived for all these years. Only a six-hour drive from Lawrence.  
He could scarcely believe it was true, yet his son whom he'd thought dead was getting out of the back seat, alive and well, so there was no reason to doubt Mary was also.  
He looked over the Impala's roof, his sons were standing side by side waiting, eyes solemn, Sam almost as tall as his brother.

John's eyes misted up.  
He hadn't had the pleasure of watching Sammy grow-up, of playing ball, of teaching him all the things a dad should. That was on Mary and she'd better have a good reason for it.  
He steeled himself and walked up to the door, the brothers a step behind. They understood this was John's moment.

From behind the curtain in Bobby's living-room, she watched them approach, half in trepidation and half in pride.  
John tall, with just a peppering of grey in his hair but still as striking as she remembered, with her handsome sons flanking him on each side.  
She closed her eyes, prayed to the gods to give her strength and waited for them to enter.

 

The door was opened by a middle-aged man dressed in plaid and a scruffy cap.  
"Come on in," he drawled. "Mary's expecting you."  
The greeting was friendly enough, but John could sense the veiled hostility. This must be the 'Bobby' Sam had mentioned, and it seemed he was none too happy to have John Winchester on his door-step.  
For a split second John felt a surge of jealousy, but he quashed it down immediately. His instinct told him that whatever Bobby was, he wasn't Mary's lover. There was much else at play here.

 

John brushed past him, while Bobby met Sam's eyes. He could see the swirl of emotions there, the uncertainty of what this entire story was about. The older man clapped a hand on his shoulder receiving a watery smile in return.  
Then he glanced at the older brother, but there he saw no softness.   
Dean Winchester was angry and Bobby had a moment of deja-vu, as if in another life he'd been very close to this unknown, potentially dangerous young man!

 

When John breached the door of Bobby's living room and stood there as large as life, Mary was overwhelmed, unsure of what to expect from the man she'd deserted and stolen a child.  
She understood it was because she loved him and Dean so much that she had gone to such extremes, but John didn't know that and she wouldn't blame him if he shouted and raged or even put a hand to her throat, but her husband did nothing of the kind.

He let out one strangled word. "Mary," crossed the room and pulled her into his arms, as if the years they'd been apart counted for nothing.

She was as surprised as Dean, who looked on incredulous while his father embraced the woman who'd torn their family apart.  
He glanced at his brother who was as taken aback as he, both brothers having expected their father to react in a completely different manner. 

Bobby who had taken up position at the brothers' back, raised an eye-brow; this John guy was already going up a notch in his estimation.

 

After a moment of hesitation, Mary returned her husband's embrace letting herself be culled in the strong arms that had held her for the last time fourteen years ago, and she wondered if maybe things would turn out okay after all.  
Maybe John would believe what she had to tell him. Maybe she could fix this.

She threw a glance towards her sons.   
Sam was looking on with misty eyes but the cold glare in the eyes of her older boy, whose arm was stretched protectively around Sam's shoulders, told her that Dean would not forgive so easily.  
TBC


	17. The Demonstration

Everything John had been meaning to say, all the questions he'd prepared in his mind that needed answering, had dissolved to nothing when he saw Mary in the flesh.

She was exactly as he remembered, the image impressed in his brain not allowing him to see the blemishes that had come with the passing of the years but only the woman he'd loved, lost, and now by some miracle found again.  
She even smelled the same he noticed as he held her tight.

Mary hadn't known what to expect, she'd been prepared for anger, confusion even hate but she'd never have thought to find herself caught up in this passionate embrace.   
However she was too intelligent a woman not to fear that her husband's reaction might change once he heard the whole story.

 

She too had loved John.   
After all what she'd done had been as much for him as for Dean, but during all these years of separation she'd had time to adjust, to push down any regrets for her decision, certain she was doing the right thing.  
She'd sacrificed much for her mission but the demon that had killed her parents and unknown to him, even the man she was holding in her arms, would be back.  
He'd be back for Sam, she'd never been so sure of anything in her life.   
That had been her fault, the young girl she'd been back then had sacrificed her son for her husband and she had to put it right!

All these thoughts flitted through her mind as John held on to her and she let him take his fill.  
The quiet before the storm, she mused ruefully.

 

She peeked over John's shoulder and met her oldest son's eyes.  
Dean, unlike John, didn't seem any gladder to see her than he had the last time.  
There was a coldness in his eyes that she was unsure how to interpret, but given the arm slung possessively around Sam's shoulders, she hazarded a guess that he'd never forgive her for the loss of his little brother.  
Funny how fate worked, if it hadn't been for Dean himself warning her, he'd probably have grown up alongside Sam but then again, nobody could ever know for sure. This was their reality now.

 

Watching on the side-lines as the family drama played out, Bobby gave his head a good scratch. He'd been in the hunting business long enough to know when change had come. The life he'd gotten used to with Mary and Sam was over.   
There were two new players in the room.

He studied the tall dark-haired man who was Mary's husband.   
He was wrapped around her so tight that Bobby wouldn't be surprised if the girl had chalked up a couple of cracked ribs under his assault.

Bobby felt a wave of human sympathy for the man.   
He'd lost his wife too and he couldn't begin to imagine how he'd feel if Karen turned up on his door-step alive, but Mary had run off to keep him and Dean out of danger. She had a demon on her and Sam's ass.  
Well, he grunted to himself, the cat was out of the bag now, they would all just have to deal.

He took in the older boy's possessive stance, the kid was pissed and he wasn't trying to hide it.   
Mary might manage to explain things to her husband but Dean was going to be another kettle of fish..

 

John finally drew back from his wife but kept both hands on her shoulders as if now he'd found her, he couldn't bear the thought of letting her go.  
"Mary," he breathed in a broken voice. "What happened? How did you survive the accident? Did you take a hit to the head and lose your memory?"   
He hesitated for a moment. "Was it another man….?"

Sam and Dean exchanged glances.  
Obviously John had come up with explanations of his own for Mary's desertion, something he could understand and excuse, because the idea that Mary had consciously taken his baby son, faked an accident and stayed away, intending to continue down that road forever if not for the twist of fate that had allowed Sam and Dean to meet, was just so incredible that he couldn't fathom it.

Mary averted her eyes.  
How was she to explain to John, yet she had to.  
Now that he and Dean had found her, whatever was coming for Sam would have eyes everywhere, and while it may have left John and Dean in peace before, that might no longer be the case.

She gently removed his hands from her shoulders, gripping them between her own.  
"Come and sit down, John. There's a lot to explain."  
She led him to the kitchen and indicated the chair, feeling his eyes on her, following her every move as if she might disappear again.

She exchanged glances with Bobby. Introductions were in order.  
"John Winchester meet Bobby Singer. Sam and I have been living here at his house for just about the entire time, since…well since…"

The two men studied each other warily, John because he didn't know exactly what role this rather unkempt man had Mary's life, and Bobby because now that he could see John's face clearly, he realized this wasn't the weepy emotional man he'd seemed when he been crying onto his wife's shoulder.  
Mary had told him John was an ex-marine and Bobby could see the steel in his gaze.

 

Meanwhile the boys had followed them into the room.  
Dean was leaning against the kitchen cupboards while Sam had flopped down on one of the chairs.  
Bobby took a couple of beers from the fridge.   
They were ones he kept doctored with a few drops of holy water.

Mary had identified him as John Winchester but Bobby had never met the man, he could be possessed for all he knew.   
No harm in checking.  
Mary gave him a tiny smile, she knew about the doctored beer.

She took a deep breath then sat down opposite her husband.  
"John, this is… complicated. And please, please....... just listen, no matter how outlandish it may seem.  
Ghosts, werewolves, vampires and any other supernatural being you can think of are real. They exist and my family, my dad and mom, they were hunters, experts who knew how to banish and kill these creatures.  
I was raised in that life but I hated it and when they were killed and we married, I swore never to have anything to do with hunting again. But I'm finding out that there are some things you can't escape."  
:  
The last thing John Winchester had been expecting to hear was something like this, and his expression must have shown it.

"I understand John that it's a lot to take in but it's the truth," she confirmed ruefully.  
She nodded to Bobby who was standing beside her.  
"Bobby's a hunter too. One of the best," she said almost proudly.

:  
"Mary," John stuttered trying to get his head round what she'd said. "Has this man been feeding you drugs or something? You can't really believe what you're saying!"  
"It's true John and if you let me, I can prove it. We knew only a demonstration might convince you."

 

Sam looked up at his brother.  
Dean's face was set in stone. Although Sam had told him the supernatural existed, he hadn't truly believed it, thinking Sam had somehow been brain-washed. This was some strange shit!

:  
John pushed back the chair and began to pace.  
"What a fool I've been! Dean warned me. I should have listened yet I was convinced there was a reason for what you did but now you come out with an incredible story of ghosts and ghost-hunters. You took my son from me and the only explanation you can give is this mumbo-jumbo!"

He nodded to his sons. "Come on boys, let's get out of here and back to the real world."  
Dean took a step forward, ready to follow his father when suddenly they found themselves looking down the barrel of a rifle.

 

"John," Mary said sadly. "I can't let you go until I've convinced you the supernatural exists, so you're going to have to witness the little demonstration Bobby and I set up first."

Bobby held the rifle unflinchingly. "Do as the lady says," he ordered. "I don't want to hurt you, but just know my aim is good and I can put a bullet where it hurts. Now move."

"Sam," Mary called to her youngest. "I understand your anger but you know this is all true. Take your brother down to the basement. You're gonna need an exorcism."  
Sam held her gaze but he did know the supernatural existed. He'd tried to tell Dean but his big brother hadn't believed him.  
:  
He turned to his sibling.  
"Dean. I haven't known you very long but I'd never lie to you. You've got to believe me. All mom said is true," he pleaded earnestly.

Dean could see the sincerity in Sam's eyes.   
"Okay. If you show me something that can be considered supernatural, then I'll consider believing you," the older boy conceded.  
"Come on then," Sam declared, leading the way down to the basement.   
If his mom wanted him to recite an exorcism then they must have an unwelcome visitor.  
Mary and John followed them down with Bobby and the rifle bringing up the rear.

 

John and Dean's incredulous eyes took in the sight of a man tied to a chair in the middle of some giant circle filled with strange squiggles.  
There was a gag tied roughly round his mouth.   
As soon as Mary untied it, the demon began to talk.

"Well, what have we here? A little family reunion. How sweet!" it leered.  
"Now Sam," Mary ordered, not wanting the demon to say anything incriminating.

 

His father and older brother looked on horrified as Sam recited the exorcism by memory, causing the bound man to writhe, and his head to shake in pain as Sam droned his way through the Latin words.  
"…audi nos," he finished off and a stream of black smoke exited the man's mouth and filtered its way through the cement floor, while the body on the chair flopped against the ropes that were holding it.

Mary rushed over, looked up at Bobby and shook her head. "He's been dead for a while, " she said sadly.  
"Yeah, I suspected as much," Bobby answered. "Poor guy!"

She turned to John and Dean. "Now do you believe?" she voiced passionately. "That was a demon. It had possessed this man's dead body. Bobby summoned it to give you a practical demonstration."

The hunter lowered the rifle.  
"You guys want to go back upstairs? Maybe now you might just listen to what Mary has to say."

TBC


	18. Mary Tells All

Of the little group of people who gathered in Bobby's kitchen, two wore faces both Mary and Bobby were more than familiar with.  
They were the expressions of those who had been newly exposed to the world of the supernatural via an indisputable demonstration that didn't give them the option of brushing off what they'd seen as an optical illusion or some momentary insanity.  
:  
"Take a seat," Bobby intimated at the two Winchesters, the rifle still hanging down by his side though he figured he'd have no more need of it if the bigger man's body language was anything to go by.  
John pulled out a chair and flopped down on it, what he'd just witnessed overwhelming him.  
:  
Dean however, didn't follow his father's example.  
He stood firmly at Sam's side, a distraught expression marring the handsome features, not so much for what he'd been testimony to, but for the idea that his skinny little brother happened to be able to call up a Latin exorcism by memory, which meant that Sammy had faced these things before, and an ulterior bitterness at his mother having put the teen in such great danger was added to his list of resentments against her.  


'So what the freaking hell,' he murmured to himself. 'Even if 'demons' do exist, why does Sammy have to have anything to do with them?'

He glanced down at his brother who had his eyes glued to the three adults around the table, and in that precise moment Dean took a silent vow to protect the kid from anything and everything. But to do that properly, he'd have to learn all that Sam, Mary and the Bobby guy knew, and more besides.  
Sam must have felt his big brother's gaze on him, for he turned, giving him a regretful smile, his puppy-like eyes sad, causing Dean to throw an arm around the bony shoulders and tug him close.  
:  
The first question John asked when he found his voice echoed Dean's silent musings.  
"What has any of this got to do with you and Sam, Mary? How did you find out these things even existed? Was this the reason you ran off with Sam and faked your deaths, leaving me gutted and Dean without his mom and baby brother? I don't understand. I need to know," he declared in growing agitation.  
"It's complicated, John," Mary sighed, exchanging glances with Bobby, who shrugged,. This was Mary's ball game. It was up to her to tell John how much she thought he ought to know.  
:  
She leaned back against the sink, it was a story better told standing up, at least she had a momentary height advantage over her tall husband.  
She threw a glance at Dean, noticing the arm slung possessively across Sam's shoulders, the sight causing her to inwardly flinch.  
Dean was hostile to her, and he had every right to be, looking at it from his point of view. She'd run off taking his baby brother.  
She fondly recalled how Dean had been over the moon when Sammy was born, hardly ever leaving his side, enchanted by the tiny baby, by its coos and toothless smiles.  
:  
She sent her oldest a silent apology.  
'I'm so sorry I had to do this to you, son but I thought it was necessary to keep you and John safe though I may only have postponed the inevitable, for here we all are together again. Maybe I shouldn't have listened to you Dean when you came back in time and told me not to enter Sammy's room that night of November.'  
:  
She turned her attention back to her husband and the story she was now forced to tell.  
"You remember my mom and dad, Samuel and Deanna?"  
Sam and Dean exchanged surprised glances.  
Neither had known they'd been named for their maternal grandparents, though Sam followed through with a little smirk at Dean having been the one called after his grandmother, a smirk that was answered with a playful tap to the back of Sam's head and a whispered. "Shut up, squirt."  
:  
Meanwhile Mary had been continuing. "Well. They were both hunters."  
"Hunters? " John interrupted.  
"Yeah, that's what those who battle the supernatural get called," she explained.  
John merely nodded, intimating her to continue.  
"Well, as I said, they were both hunters, and on Dad's side came from a long line of them going back through the centuries. A kind of 'family business'," she added tiredly. "I was brought up in it too."  
She looked over at her sons just in time to witness the little exchange between them with Dean's fond tap to Sam's floppy-haired head and she bit back a smile despite the circumstances.  
:  
"Why didn't you tell me any of this when we were courting?" John asked, a sliver of anger beginning to build in him.  
"If I'd told you my family hunted demons, ghosts and a variety of monsters, you'd have thought I was crazy and you'd have jilted me on the spot. I loved you, John and I didn't want to lose you.  
Then I hated that life. I wanted normal. Simply to be together, find a place of our own, have kids, without the burden of the supernatural.  
For us all to live a happy, fulfilling life and forget about monsters. Never to come back bloody and wounded from hunts like I used to see dad and mom," she affirmed passionately.  
:  
"You should have told me Mary. It was my decision to make. How could you be so sure that I wouldn't understand? So that's why your father never took to me, huh. Because I wasn't in on the big family secret, " John stated brusquely.  
"No John. Dad liked you, it's just…"  
"It's just that he wanted a hunter for his little girl, not an uninitiated mechanic…" John interrupted.  
Mary couldn't deny it, so she didn't.  
:  
"Then you'll remember what happened after," she shrugged, hoping he'd settle for that.  
"No, I don't," John denied. "You told me your mom had been attacked and killed in the house by a thief and that your dad had died of a heart attack from grief."  
:  
She looked across at Bobby before answering but the older man could only send her an understanding glance, well aware of how painful this was for Mary.  
"You're right, John. That was all a cover up. My mom was attacked and killed but not by a thief. A demon killed both her and dad. That same demon is the reason I took Sammy away to try and protect you and Dean from ever coming into contact with it."  
:  
Dean had been listening carefully to his mother's words.  
It was a lot to take in. His grandparents had been hunters from a long ancestry. He could understand that, but she hadn't yet answered the most important question of all. Why she'd taken Sammy and left him?  
:  
"Why did you go away with Sammy and leave me behind? Why not just disappear alone if you thought you'd bring danger down on us?" Dean declared, his feelings of resentment towards Mary as strong as before, despite her story.  
"Dean's right," John agreed. "It's obvious you haven't told us everything."  
He pinned his wife with a demanding stare. "As neither Dean nor I are going to leave this house without getting the whole picture, you'd better come clean."  
:  
"Okay. If that's what you need to hear," she sighed.  
"You died John! You died in my arms. Killed by the same demon that murdered my mom and dad!"  
tbc


	19. Dean's Reaction

"You died John! You died in my arms. Killed by the same demon that murdered my mom and dad!"  
:::::::::::::::::  
Utter silence fell over the room as the three male Winchesters grappled with what Mary had said, until John roughly pushed back his chair, circled the table and took up position in front of his wife.  
John was a patient man, but he'd lived with the burden of his wife and son's death for fourteen years and if what he'd been seeing and hearing in Singer's house had been difficult to accept, this was just unbelievable.  
:  
"What the hell are you saying?" he stated flatly.  
"You heard me," she replied piqued at his irascible tone. "The demon killed you. And I made a deal to bring you back to life."  
The quick glance she threw at Sam was lost on John, too taken aback to notice, but not to Dean who was cataloguing every word and action of the drama playing out in Bobby Singer's kitchen.  
Some new-found instinct kicked in and before his mother spoke, he guessed exactly what she was going to say, and he pulled Sam even closer, soliciting a huff from the younger boy, but Dean held on tight.  
:  
"What does that even mean?" John was shouting now.  
"Hey, calm down Winchester," Bobby butted in threateningly. "Or I'll kick you out on your ass whether Mary wants it or not! We were gettin' along fine before you turned up to put the fox among the chickens..."  
"It's okay, Bobby," Mary said placing a calming hand on the older hunter's forearm "It's not easy for John to hear what I've been saying."  
"Huh!" Bobby grunted unconvinced.  
For some reason John Winchester brushed him up the wrong way, even though he'd only met the man an hour ago!  
:  
She turned back to her husband.  
"Demons make deals, John. They always have. In synthesis they'll give you anything you want in return for your soul which will naturally go to hell and be damned for all eternity."  
John stared at her, unable to comprehend the enormity of what she was saying.  
"And.. you... did that? You.. sold your soul to bring me back to life?"  
"No, John. The demon didn't want my soul. It wanted something else," she said sadly.  
:  
"Sammy, it wanted Sammy, didn't it? " Dean growled angrily.  
He took a step forward, dragging Sam along with him.  
"You sold Sammy's soul to get Dad back! How could you do that? Promise the soul of your unborn son to a demon. Condemn him to Hell! What kind of mother are you, anyway!"  
At his side he could feel Sam tremble at his big brother's words.  
"No, Dean." Mary tried to defend herself from her eldest son's attack. "It wasn't like that. I didn't sell Sam's soul. I would never have done that."  
"But it still had something to do with Sammy, didn't it?" Dean insisted.  
:  
"Hey, Bobby broke in. "That's no way to treat your mother, kid, no matter what you might think. Let her finish or you'll be getting kicked out along with your da'"  
:  
"Dean, you've got to understand," Mary was almost begging. "A demon was possessing my dad's dead body, and it killed John in front of me.  
I was young and in love. Your father and I were going to go off together and I was going to leave hunting behind me for ever. When the demon said he'd bring John back to life, I was sorely tempted to take whatever deal he offered.  
Then when he told me he didn't want anyone's soul, all he wanted was to swing by my house in ten years time, and if he wasn't interrupted nothing would bad happen to anyone.  
He insisted it was a good deal.  
I was desperate, my parents had just been killed, now John. I was completely alone, and I accepted. I couldn't predict I'd have children and I was quite happy to sacrifice myself ten years on, if it was me the demon was going to come for back."  
"You made a deal with a demon without knowing what he was going to ask in exchange. It could have been something worse than selling one's soul, for all you knew, " Dean hissed.  
:  
"John... " she whispered, looking up at her husband who'd been listening paralysed at the exchange between Dean and Mary.  
At her plea, he moved forward and took her in his arms.  
Mary's tears had always brought out his protective instincts, and despite all that had been revealed, he couldn't find it in his heart to condemn her.  
He tried to imagine himself in the same situation.  
What would he have done if it had been Mary lying dead in his arms? Would he have made a deal with a demon to get her back? There was no way of knowing.  
:  
"Shush, Sweetheart," he soothed. "It's okay. Together we'll work everything out."  
:  
But Dean wasn't finished yet.  
"Nothing you've told us explains why you took Sammy away," he insisted. "If you didn't know what the demon was coming for, then why leave me and dad?"  
Mary, wrapped snugly in her husband's strong arms, dropped her second bombshell of the day.  
"You told me Dean," she said, catching her eldest son completely by surprise. "You were the one that pleaded with me not to go into Sam's nursery on the second of November, nineteen eighty-three"  
:  
This time it was Sam's turn to look up confused at his big brother. "Dean, is it true? Did you go back in time and see mom?"  
"What...! No, Sammy. I...uh.. I don't remember doing anything like that "  
"Then how?"  
"He doesn't remember, Sam," Bobby confirmed.  
"It happened in a different time-line to this one. At least I think that's how it works," he continued, lifting his grubby cap, scratching his head and settling it back down. "Though I'm no expert on this time travel hogwash."  
:  
"Mom..?" Sam turned to his mother.  
"I need to sit down, John," she said pulling up a chair at the little table, her husband following and taking up position next to her.  
:  
"That November night," she explained. "I was in bed when I heard a noise coming from the baby's room. I got up to see if anything was wrong and I was just about to go in when the words spoken by the guy I'd met when I was young, came back to mind."  
['Even if this sounds really weird. Will you promise me that you will remember?  
On November 2nd, 1983, don't get out of bed. No matter what you hear, or what you see. Promise me you won't get out of bed.']  
"I'd no idea who he was. He'd presented himself as a hunter and I'd no reason to doubt it"  
:  
She smiled up at Dean, hoping her son's attitude had softened towards her but Dean's eyes were cold.  
"I never realised I'd been talking to my son, though he obviously knew who I was and what my future would bring, but back then it was all irrelevant.  
So that night, which just happened to be the second of November, instead of going into Sammy's room, which all my maternal instincts were telling me to do, I put my faith in that heartfelt, long ago warning, and feeling like the worst mother in the universe, I remained outside.  
I did end up taking a peep though the half-open door just in time to see a shadowy figure disappear, before I dashed in to see the baby.  
There was a smell of sulphur pervading the room but Sam was lying untouched in his cot, much to my relief.  
That's when I knew I had to take him and leave, for whatever the demon had come for, it had something to do with Sammy and I was afraid that if I stayed, then whatever it was might fall on you and Dean too, " she said addressing her husband.  
"I was the one who made the deal with the demon and it was up to me to protect you and Dean while trying to find out what he wanted with Sam.  
That's how I ended up with Bobby and we've been working on tracing the demon ever since."

What Mary didn't add was that on Sam's pillow and lips that night, she'd found drops of blood. Only Bobby knew, and for the moment it was going to stay that way. The Winchesters had enough information to deal with for now.  
:  
Dean who had never taken his arm from Sam's shoulder, spoke up, addressing his mother.  
"All this sounds like some fairytale though I get that demons exist, since we've just had a demonstration close-up in the old guy's basement," he said nodding at Bobby.  
" But what you did was wrong. You made a deal with a demon not knowing what you were agreeing to. The ass-hole showed up in my little brother's room and you didn't even go in to defend Sammy just because of what some alternate me told you. You do understand how crazy that sounds, don't you?"  
"Come on , Sammy." He turned to his baby brother. "Let's get out of here."  
"Dean!" his father called. "Where are you going? What's wrong with you? Your mom's explained why she left. She was trying to protect us."  
:  
"Sorry, dad, but she made a deal to save you and god knows I'm grateful you're alive, but she left Sammy to take the fall! If it had been me, I'd have gone into Sam's room, devil take the consequences, and you should have too!" he said, scowling at Mary.  
Sam looked from his mom, dad and Bobby, back to Dean, uncertain.  
The story he'd just heard had frightened the crap out of him. The idea that a demon had appeared in his room and stood over his crib when he was a baby made his skin crawl, and though he sort of understood his mother's motives, like Dean he was taken aback that she hadn't gone into the nursery to defend him.  
:  
In that moment Sam made his decision.  
Ever since he was a child Mary and Bobby had always been there for him, brought him up, taught him all about hunting and the supernatural, but the trust Sam held towards them had cracked, and Sam felt instinctively that his big brother, though he'd met him only a few days ago, would always have his back and never betray his trust.  
"Yeah, Dean. I'm coming," he answered and the three adults watched in trepidation as the brothers walked out the door.  
TBC


	20. Dean's Decision

Epilogue.  
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::  
When Dean stepped through the door into the yard, he felt slightly dazed.  
What he'd been witness to inside the Singer home had seemed like the plot of one of those B horror movies where brainless teens get hacked to death by axe-wielding monsters.  
The idea that everything he'd seen and heard was true made his head ache.  
:  
All of this was so outlandish.  
In the space of a few days he'd found his presumed dead brother and mother, been presented to the supernatural via the exorcism of a screaming demon from a dead human body, and to top it all off, in some alternate reality or whatever, a Dean Winchester had gone back to 1973, warned his mother to keep out of Sam's room on a certain night in November when a demon was due to drop in on his baby brother .  
For a second he lost his balance, almost stumbling, his brain too overloaded to keep him on an even keel, only to feel the tug of his brother's hand latching on to his jacket.  
:  
"Watch your step, Dean. Uncle Bobby isn't exactly house-proud when it comes to the yard."  
Strangely enough, the touch of his sibling's hand grounded him and he wondered why that should be.  
Why did having Sam by his side feel so right. He shrugged off the feeling of deja vu. His mother's story about alternate timelines was getting to him.  
:  
"Dean." There was an anxious edge to his brother's voice that had been missing before.  
The older boy gazed down at him.  
Sam's eyes were filled with an expression Dean hadn't yet seen there.  
His kid brother had acted calm and controlled throughout this entire mess, even when he'd recited the exorcism in Singer's basement, whereas the sight of the writhing demon had scared the pants off Dean.  
But now Dean recognised fear in the moss-green eyes.  


"What's wrong, Sammy," he asked pulling the teen around to face him.  
"You heard what mom said back there. The demon came into my room, he came specifically for me, Dean. What did he want? " The anxiety in Sam's voice notched itself up a level.  


All the self-confidence the boy had exhibited until then fell away leaving a frightened teen in its place, though at the moment the floppy hair and wide pleading eyes made him look no more than a five-year old looking up to his big brother for help, something Dean didn't know how to give.  
All this supernatural shit was beyond him. He couldn't give Sam the answers to his questions.  
Back in the house he'd been so angry at his mother for spiriting Sammy away that he hadn't caught the implications of what she'd been saying concerning the kid.  
The demon had come to Sam. The demon wanted something from him. But what?  
:  
"Hey, squirt," Dean said, pulling the the boy close and tightening his arms around the skinny frame.  
"Nothing's gonna happen to you while I'm around."  
He could feel Sam trembling, and he was pervaded by a rush of protectiveness. He tightened his hold. He'd defend his little brother against the devil himself if he dared lay a hand on him.  


"But what if the demon's biding his time. Maybe he wants my soul. Dean, I'm scared."  
"What did I just say, Sam, " Dean soothed. "I'm gonna look out for you."  
"You can't, Dean," Sam snuffled into his jacket. "Demons are powerful. Even the most experienced hunters like uncle Bobby and mom can't kill them. All they can do is send them back to hell."  
:  
Dean glanced back at the house. He'd stomped out vowing to himself never to go back, to take Sammy to Lawrence and let him have a normal life away from all this bullshit.  
But Sam was right. He wasn't able to protect his little brother from anything supernatural. He didn't know how, but behind that scruffy front door were people who could.  
Dean revised his decision.  
This wasn't the time to hold a grudge against his mother, though he knew in his heart he'd never truly forgive her for taking Sam away, but now that he had his baby brother back, he wasn't going to lose him again, not to a demon, not to anything!  
The only way to keep the promise he'd just made to Sam, that he'd keep him safe, was to go back inside and soak up everything he could from both Mary and Singer..  
He'd do whatever it took. Sam was his number one priority now.  
:  
He spared a thought for his other self, the one who had warned Mary. She'd said he was a hunter and Dean wondered what he'd been like.  
Did that version of himself grow up in the hunting life? Did he have a Sam by his side. Did he love his sibling?  
He pushed the thoughts from his mind. They were sterile. That Dean no longer existed. There was only him. The Dean who had just found his little brother.  
Nevertheless, if that Dean had been a hunter then so could he.  
:  
He pushed Sam back to arm's length, the better to meet his eyes.  
"We gotta go back inside, Sammy. I was furious with Mary but she and Singer know how to protect you if anything should come calling, I don't. But," he declared confidently, a cocky grin gracing his face as Sam gazed up at him. "I'm gonna learn. I gotta protect you, Sammy. I couldn't look out for you when you were a kid but I'm gonna make up for that.  
Dean Winchester's gonna be the best hunter that ever was and all those demons out there had better start quaking in their boots. You ready to give your awesome big brother a hand here?"  
  
Sam grinned up at him, the elder boy's confidence was contagious, and Dean swore the kid's smile warmed him as nothing had before.  
"Yeah. I'll teach you all I know, Dean, " he assured his brother.  
"Good enough, squirt," Dean replied, ruffling the messy mop of hair and receiving a primordial bitch-face in return.  
"Let's go back in there. Whatever that demon wanted with my baby brother, he's not gonna get it."  
:  
With one arm curled around his sibling's shoulder, Dean walked confidently back towards the house.  
Now he had a mission in life. One he was going to take very seriously. To look out for Sammy.  
:  
Fate released a sigh of relief as she wrote up a correction to what had been an abhorrence in her time-line.  
Mary should have died that dark night of November, but as the goddess had witnessed many times throughout the aeons, fate could at times be side-stepped, but never truly avoided.  


The end

Hope you enjoyed. Thanks to everyone who read and gave kudos.


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